Time Warp
by SabreDae
Summary: Albus went missing. It was up to me and Scorpius to find my idiot cousin but it was bound to be difficult with a time machine involved. Follow our adventures in this story. Prompt from Forever Siriusly Sirius. Rated T for language. Features Rose, Albus, Scorpius, James, Lily, Fred and Dominique.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Hello, dear readers. First up, before I let you read, I'd like to say a really big thank you to Lizaluvsdoggies for coming up with the idea behind this story and letting me write it. If you like it, please, please, please tell her how awesome she is! **

**A quick disclaimer: I solemnly swear that I am up to no good by impersonating J K Rowling. (We all know it: I'm not her, folks, and therefore, I do not own any of these characters etc. apart from the ones I made up in my imagination.)**

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"I expect a roll of parchment on the uses of unicorn hairs on my desk by the end of the week," Professor Murphy said, piling his Care of Magical Creatures textbooks on top of one another. "Mr Malfoy, Mr Potter, please wait behind to discuss your detentions. Class dismissed."

I gathered my things, but whilst everyone else left, I had to stick around and wait for my two idiot best friends. That was what happened when you were a Weasley. That was what happened when you were friends with the two biggest trouble makers in the year: Scorpius Malfoy and Albus Potter. Of course, they were nothing on my older cousins, Fred and James, but since they'd knuckled down to their NEWTs after frequent threats from their parents, Scor and Al had done a pretty solid job of filling the boots they'd left behind.

Finally Scor and Al were done being reprimanded and the three of us walked back up to the castle for our next lesson.

"I can't believe it's the first week back and we're already getting homework," Scorpius moaned. "My brain's not ready for this!"

"I know. I hate Professor Murphy so much. He's such a battle-axe!" Al agreed before launching into an impersonation of our Care of Magical Creatures teacher. "If you boys talk over me again, it won't just be a detention you get!"

"Well you really shouldn't have talked over him," I told them both. "It's not polite."

"Sorry. I forgot we were talking to all the teachers' favourite pet," Al moaned, glaring at me. The instant I drew my wand, he was grovelling though. "No, Rose, please. Not that spell – I only just finished getting glitter out of my hair from last time!"

I smiled cruelly and hissed the incantation that would cause Al to have a make-over. Scor snorted at the pink, glitter butterfly that had been painted around Al's eyes like a superhero mask.

"Rose!" Al complained. "Do the counter curse! I can't walk around like this! Professor Cackling will give me another detention! You know she will!"

"Fine, but only if you promise to stop asking me to help you with your homework."

"Deal," Al said, closing his eyes and waiting for me to undo the spell.

"Come on, Rose, put him out of his misery," Scor laughed.

Sighing, I directed my wand at my cousin's face and muttered the spell that would get rid of his face paint. If he wasn't so lazy he could have done it himself. It was only a cleaning spell.

"Now, remember? No asking me to help with your homework."

"Whatever, Rose. I had my fingers crossed," Al said, turning and displaying his crossed fingers as he walked through the Entrance Hall doors first. "I found this new shortcut to the Third Floor. Come on."

"Brilliant," Scorpius replied excitedly. "Where is it?"

"It's right here and it goes along that bit of the First Floor that Professor Longbottom said was forbidden-"

"-No. Not brilliant, Scorpius. This is just another of Albus' stupid ideas that always end up getting you in trouble. That part of the castle will be forbidden for a reason and it's not to invite you to explore it. Honestly, anyone would think you had a complex, Al. Just because you're Harry Potter's son, doesn't mean you have to break the rules all the time to try and be like him."

"Don't be stupid, Rose, it's not like that. I'm not trying to be like Dad," Al muttered defensively. "I just like to save my legs and take shorter routes to class. Is that not okay?"

"Oh, it's not like that? Really? How many times have you had detentions, Albus? What happened the last time you took a so-called shortcut? Oh that's right, the pair of you ended up walking into Professor Trelawney's bedroom. You're an embarrassment sometimes. You really are," I argued, doing my best to keep my voice down.

"Shut up, Rose. I'm not an embarrassment, am I, Scor?"

"I don't know, dude. It was pretty awkward when we saw Professor Trelawney's knickers. I sure don't want to see that again." He looked at Al with pity, clearly siding with me for once.

"And I thought you were my friend?" Al asked himself, shaking his head at his own foolishness.

"I am your friend. I am," Scorpius promised. "It's just sometimes…well, sometimes you act like a First Year, Al and we're not. We're in our Fourth Year now. The time for fun and games is over."

"Do you know what? I wish I was still in First Year," Albus declared, backing away. "And then I wouldn't have to be friends with idiots like you!" After a few pointing fingers, he stormed away from us to take his stupid short cut.

"Talk about an overreaction," I muttered, feeling moody after arguing. I shot Scorpius a dirty look when he didn't agree with me, but he didn't seem to have even heard what I said. He was looking at the portrait through which Al had vanished, guilt and shame all over his face.

He finally turned to look at me. "So? Defence Against the Dark Arts?"

I nodded and looked back to the Grand Staircase, registering that the Entrance Hall was deserted.

"Great, thanks to that slug's breath of a boy we're late!"

"Give him a break, Rose. It's hard enough being the son of the Chosen One in this place." I knew exactly what Scorpius was talking about. Everywhere Al went people stared at him. Whenever he said something, everyone stopped to listen. Sometimes, First Years even asked for his autograph. But it wasn't like he was the only one. James and Lily received the same treatment, and even Hugo and I didn't escape fame.

I led the way up the stairs, stomping with anger. Sometimes Albus could be the world's most inconsiderate pig. He'd been fine when we were younger. We'd always been close. And when we first started at Hogwarts he was quiet and studious. Now he was probably one of the most raucous, laziest boys in our year. Somewhere along the line, we'd stopped getting along.

I was probably better friends with Scorpius now and that was saying something. In First Year, Scorpius and I hadn't agreed on anything. We'd hated each other, even after he was sorted into Gryffindor with Al and me.

The moment we opened the door to Professor Cackling's classroom, we ducked. Every time someone arrived late to his lesson, he threw a piece of chalk at them. I'd never ever experienced it before, but Scorpius had. He pulled me down with him and up the aisle to the table we usually shared with Al.

"So much for his shortcut," I remarked cuttingly when we sat down with him nowhere in sight.

"Thank you for joining us, Mr Malfoy, Miss Weasley," Professor Cackling said, turning to us with a sinister smile. "Perhaps you would like to enlighten me as to the whereabouts of Mr Potter."

"He's probably lost somewhere, Sir," Scorpius mumbled.

"Lost? How could he be lost?"

Neither Scorpius nor I said anything. Despite our argument, we wouldn't betray Al that way.

Dissatisfied with our silence, Professor Cackling turned back to the board where he had begun writing notes for the class to copy down. Scorpius breathed a sigh of relief at having escaped punishment, but I was less convinced. "Please stay behind an extra ten minutes at the end of the lesson," Professor Cackling instructed us.

As the lesson wore on, I found myself increasingly glancing back at the door through which I expected Al to appear. But he never did. All down my right side, I could feel a draft because he wasn't sat in-between Scor and me.

Finally, the end of the lesson arrived and for the second time that morning, I was forced to wait behind.

"Well?" Professor Cackling demanded.

"Well what?" Scorpius asked, just as confused as me.

"Don't talk back to me!"

Scorpius opened his mouth to protest. I kicked him under the table and sent him a warning glare. It was obvious that the most disliked teacher in the school was simply looking for an excuse to give us detentions. We fell into silence. After five minutes, seething, Professor Cackling finally released us.

"Imagine what Al would have said about that!" Scorpius ground out before remembering that we probably still weren't talking to Albus.

"I wonder where he is," I mumbled as we entered the Great Hall for break. I was in dire need of a hot chocolate, grabbed a mug from the table and took a seat, still searching for my cousin. "Lily?"

"Yeah?" Lily answered, looking up from her group of Second Year friends.

"Have you seen your brother?"

"He isn't with you two?" she asked, seeming surprised. Everyone thought that Scor, Al and I were like my parents and Uncle Harry: inseparable.

I shook my head.

"Well I haven't seen him. I thought he had a lesson with you…"

As Scorpius and I explained what had happened, I couldn't help beginning to worry. With Al's luck, he could have ended up walking into a herd of angry hippogriffs but we wouldn't know because we'd refused to use his shortcut.

Scorpius frowned at me. "Maybe we should go and look for him…"

"We can't. We've got Potions now."

"We've got a little bit of time, surely."

"Nope, not even a minute," I told him. I'd barely finished speaking before the bell to signal the end of our ten minute break rang. "Told you."

"How?! How do you do that?" he demanded, looking at me like I had some supernatural time-keeping ability.

"Psychic," I laughed. "Now, come on. I don't want to be late twice today. I'm sure Al will have managed to find his way to Potions by now too."

We stood up, leaving behind our mugs and gathering our bags.

"See you in the Common Room, Lily," I called over my shoulder as we moved off.

Scorpius hummed as we walked down to the dungeons. He did that a lot. Humming, that is. As soon as silence fell, Scorpius would break it with a little tune. And quite often, particularly in the evenings in the Common Room, after humming a while, he'd end up singing without even realising it.

"And I feel you forget me like I used feel you breathe,' he sang quietly.

"You're doing it again," I told him with a roll of my eyes.

"Oops. Sorry. I just can't help it," he replied, shooting me a wry smile.

"I know you can't," I sighed as we stopped outside our Potions classroom and waited with the rest of our class for Professor Jamieson to arrive. It was just a little annoying sometimes. "So, are we placing bets?"

"Bets?" Scorpius asked with a grin.

"Bets. Bets on whether Albus will still be in a bad mood with us," I clarified.

"You know he will be," he laughed. "He's your cousin. Plus the last time you two argued – and bearing in mind it was only about whether there's actually cheese in cheesecake – he didn't speak to you for a whole week!"

"Don't remind me. And I know I'm right. There is cheese in cheesecake," I told him.

"Whatever, don't bring me into it."

Finally, Professor Jamieson hurried down the stairs, her heels clacking against the stone floor. Scorpius raised his eyebrows as per usual. Professor Jamieson was the youngest, female teacher in the school – having returned to Hogwarts to teach after just two years of finishing her education here. And as the youngest teacher, she very much ignored the staff dress code, wearing altered robes that barely reached the middle of her thighs. She always wore ridiculously high heels and about an inch of make-up. Most of the boys, if not all, were harbouring a crush on her.

Clearing my throat, I elbowed Scorpius and looked pointedly at the lack of queue in front of him then back at all the people stood impatiently behind us who were waiting for him to stop lusting after our teacher and walk through the door.

Scorpius gave me an apology, looking embarrassed at having been caught, and entered the classroom. After taking our seats, the two of us looked at the door, searching for Albus. But even Janine – our very unorganised friend from Hufflepuff – arrived whilst he didn't.

Scorpius shrugged at me and flipped open his textbook to the page Professor Jamieson had requested. I glanced down at it before opening my own copy.

"Today class, as I'm sure you have guessed, we are brewing an ageing potion," she announced, flicking her wand and making the instructions she must have written up before break appear on the board behind her. "Begin!"

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**A/N: So I get that not a lot happens in this chapter. Mainly I'm setting out the main characters' relationships here and setting the scene. The juicy stuff will happen in the next chapter, promise. But I hope you enjoyed this. I'd love to know what you think. **

**Thanks for reading!**

**Much love, SabreDae**

**xxxxxxx**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Hello again, everyone! I'm going to warn you now that this chapter is pretty epic in length. I thought about splitting it into two, but really I felt like it had to continue until the place I ended it otherwise nothing much would have happened in one of the chapters. I can assure you they won't all be this long! I hope you'll stick with it though because it should be pretty exciting to read. Quick thanks to CNGB, Lizaluvsdoggies, Pika-Thunder, dovepatronus and Guest for reviewing!  
**

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Al didn't turn up to Potions either, skipping the whole lesson. By the time we'd gone to lunch, I was worrying and we decided to take his supposed shortcut as we made our way to our History of Magic class.

"We should check this room," Scorpius hissed as we sneaked along the forbidden section of the First Floor corridor.

I nodded, and tried the handle. "Locked."

"Excusé moi," he muttered, sliding in front of me and directing his wand at the lock with a 'charming' smile. "Alohamora."

As he twisted the handle and pushed the door open, I couldn't help pointing out that I could have just as easily unlocked the door for us.

"Well you should have been quicker then. Got to work on your speed if you want to beat me," he quipped, looking back over his shoulder at me as he led the way into the room. Though, by modern standards it was more of a suite than a single room. It was ridiculously massive, even without the vaulted ceiling. Though, of course, that made me feel like a dwarf or a goblin too. Scorpius whistled, the sound echoing through the room and reverberating off the walls and the box-like object standing in the middle. Aside from the tall box, there was nothing in the room.

I took a few steps into the room, ending up walking all the way around the box-thing, just to make sure Albus wasn't hiding behind it. Jumping out and scaring us was exactly the kind of thing he'd find entertaining.

"Can't see Al, can you?"

I shook my head. "He's not in here. Not unless he nicked Uncle Harry's invisibility cloak from James anyway."

"Doubtful. James would curse him into next Sunday," Scorpius remarked, holding a deep knowledge of the inner workings and relationships in my extended family from years of hanging around with us.

"Yeah, you're right. He's not here. We should probably get to class anyway."

"Just as long as he didn't find and hop through a vanishing cabinet," Scorpius mumbled as we left, giving the box another glance before shutting the door. As we hurried back the way we'd come and up the Grand Staircase, he finally said, "Wonder what that thing was? Why would they just leave some metal box-type-thing lying around in that room?"

I shrugged. Personally, I didn't even want to think about it. Knowing Hogwarts and its staff, it wasn't likely to be something without a purpose. But if the teachers had wanted us to know, they would have told us. Everyone said it, but it was true that I didn't have the same level of curiosity as my friends. Albus in particular was as inquisitive as they came. No matter how many times someone quoted the old idiom 'curiosity killed the cat', he never learnt his lesson.

Scorpius continued following me in silence, probably mulling over what the box had looked like in order to figure out what it was.

"Ready?" I asked, jerking him from his thoughts as we stood outside our History of Magic classroom. "On the count of three: one, two…three!" I swiftly opened the door and followed him in, wincing as the door creaked slightly when I pushed it closed. Luckily Professor Binns was in full flow with his lecture, reading from a textbook, and didn't notice.

By the time he looked up from his book and said, "So class, what Perkins is saying is that without the work of ancient civilisations such as those of the Roman Empire, the Egyptians and the Chinese Empire, wizardry would not exist as it does today. These ancient witches and wizards laid the foundations for magic and it's teaching to progress to what it has today."

Scorpius gave me an look that said he was impressed, though instead of unrolling his parchment and beginning take notes, he dug out an old roll, crumpled it into a ball and threw it into the air before catching it, clearly bored and uninterested. In total contrast, I wished we hadn't missed the beginning of the lesson.

I knew a lot about magic during medieval times, but this was the first time we had covered ancient times in History of Magic and it fascinated me. I was filled with questions like who first discovered magic, who the first person who learnt to use it was and how they did it.

I made sure to take meticulous notes all lesson and made a mental note to visit the library soon to catch up on what I had missed, if not learn a little extra.

At the end of the lesson, I shared another worried look with Scorpius. We still hadn't found Albus.

"There's no way he'd miss dinner. He was probably just skiving, you know how he hates History of Magic," Scorpius told me reassuringly. He said it so confidently that I couldn't help but agree with him.

But Albus didn't turn up for dinner either. Worse still, nobody in Gryffindor even appeared to have seen him. Everybody we asked just shrugged and said they hadn't seen him since either breakfast or Care of Magical Creatures.

"We'll look for him," Scorpius promised. "Just as soon as I finish this chocolate fudge cake."

"Will you stop thinking of your stomach?!"

"Nope," he replied, popping the 'p' just because he knew it had always annoyed me.

"Come on, Scorpius, this is _Albus_ we're talking about!"

As I said my cousin's name, the tiniest first year boy I'd ever seen looked up and stared at me. Disconcerted, I glanced over my shoulder, sure that one of his friends or someone had to be stood behind me.

"What are you looking at, Titch?" James demanded as he walked past me on his way out of the Great Hall.

A little freaked out by the continued scrutiny; I pulled Scorpius to his feet and towed him away to fully explore the 'short cut' Al had taken.

The whole time, Scorpius moaned, the sound of his voice beginning to make my ears ache.

"Well, we know he's not in there," Scorpius said, pointing at the locked door to the room we had investigated earlier.

"We could double check," I suggested, being logical. "Just because he wasn't in there earlier, doesn't mean to say he won't be now."

"There's no point. Why would he be in there? We haven't even got to the end of the corridor, Rose. There are tonnes of places he could be. And we haven't even tried any of the portraits – there could be a secret passage behind one of them. Like this one or that one. Hey, isn't that portrait of Orputtington the Outlandish – the one that Al said farts?"

On and on, he went as we traversed the corridor, stopping at every room to glance into the empty classrooms, the storage cupboards and the toilets.

"Well, go check," Scorpius said, pointing at the last door.

"Why should I do it? I did the last five rooms, _you _do this one."

"_I_ can't, Rose."

"And why not?"

"Because it's the girl's bathroom," he told me, pointing at the sign and looking at me like I was stupid.

"Fine," I sighed, pushing open the door and entering.

Just before it swung shut I heard Scorpius begin singing again.

"I will ride, I will fly, chase the wind and touch the sky. I will fly, chase the wind and touch the sky. Na, na, na, na, na, na, na…"

The lights flickered as I searched the room, checking every cubicle. I was just checking the last one when Scorpius burst through the door, a look of panic on his face as he knocked into me and pushed me into the cubicle. He locked the door just as someone threw open the door to the girl's bathroom. Without speaking, Scorpius grabbed my arm and stepped onto the toilet seat, pulling me with him.

"Sshh," he mouthed, holding a finger to his lips.

To keep his balance, Scorpius had thrown out his arms around me, his hands resting on the wall. We were stood so close that I could feel his warm breath fanning across my face. I found myself studying his face, noticing for the first time that his grey eyes had little flecks of green in them.

I opened my mouth to tell him, forgetting momentarily that there was someone shuffling around the toilets, but Scorpius just clamped a hand over my mouth and shot me a warning look. He appeared to have found his balance and instead of leaning against the wall, wrapped his remaining arm around me. We were closer than ever. So close, that I could smell his overpowering cologne. I wanted to choke, but I couldn't.

"Come out, come out! You're in trouble, that you are!" Filch called from the other side of the door.

I could only hope that at almost ninety years old he was too old and blind to see that the door of the cubicle we were hiding in read 'engaged'. I winced, sure that at any moment, he would kick the door down. Scorpius looked just as afraid of that particular outcome, holding his breath and turning purple.

I was just beginning to relax when Mrs Morris, Mrs Norris' replacement, stuck her head under the door and stared up at us with yellow eyes.

"Anybody there, Poppet?"

Scorpius frantically shook his head at the cat, maintaining eye contact. The cat meowed and wriggled back out of the cubicle.

Finally Filch gave up and left. I made to step down but Scorpius pulled me further into his chest, stopping me.

"Wait to be sure he's gone," he whispered. "Bet you're glad I feed that cat now."

I nodded gratefully. Never again would I complain about his nice treatment of Mrs Morris.

I waited for him to say something else. He was the expert rule breaker, not me, and he was therefore the one who knew how long Filch would hang around.

"Okay, go," he muttered, releasing me.

I stepped down from the toilet seat in a bit of a daze as the air around me cleared away Scorpius' aftershave. I shook my head and grimaced, wondering what was wrong with me. My nose still seemed to be able to smell a hint of the disgusting stuff and I glared at Scorpius, annoyed with him for wearing so much of it.

"What? It's not my fault Filch came down here on patrol. It is past curfew, you realise?"

I looked down at my watch in horror. It would be damn near impossible to get back up to Gryffindor Tower without being seen. The prefects would be out, as well as Filch and some of the teachers and the ghosts. My irritation at Scorpius doubled.

He glared back at me, seeming to blame me – though in fairness I was the one who had dragged him away from the Gryffindor table and down the forbidden corridor. In agitation he yanked the door open and strode loudly out into the corridor.

"Hurry _up_, Rose, we haven't got all night!"

"_Hurry up, Rose, we haven't got all night_," I repeated in a bad imitation as I followed him out.

"Got you!" Filch wheezed, pointing at us.

"Fu-"

"-Run!" I shouted, interrupting Scorpius' cussing.

Not needing to be told twice, he twisted on his heel and sprinted after me, the two of us tearing down the corridor away from Filch who could only limp after us. Though for a ninety year old, he was quick on his feet.

"Faster," Scorpius called, after glancing over his shoulder.

I doubled my pace, turning the corner only to realise that there was nowhere to go. Twenty yards down the corridor became a dead-end, the staircase that lead to the third floor cordoned off with enchanted tape.

"Er, Scorpius?"

"Yeah?" he yelled breathlessly.

"We have a problem!"

"Oh, crap." I knew at that that he had rounded the corner and seen what I'd seen.

"What do we do?" In my desperation, I slowed to a halt, waiting for Scorpius. I looked for an exit, a portrait – not that we'd have had time to work out the password required to open one – but there was nothing; just a bunch of tapestries hanging on the walls.

Without answering, Scorpius charged past me. I urged my feet back into a run and hurried after him. As he neared the end of the corridor, Scorpius yelled, "Diffindo!" and pointed his wand at the tapestry directly in front of him. Without slowing, he ran headlong towards the split tapestry, only to bash his head directly on stone.

Whilst he lay groaning on the ground, I directed my own wand at one of the other tapestries and cast the cutting charm, anxiously hoping that there would be a passageway or at least a hiding space behind it.

_Come on! Come on!_

I almost laughed with relief when I peeked through, finding a secret passage. Yanking Scorpius to his feet, and ignoring his moans of pain, I got us through the tapestry before fixing it and slumping to the ground in exhaustion.

"My head hurts," Scorpius complained.

"Well you shouldn't have run into the wall," I snapped.

"It wasn't my fault! I thought that tapestry was the one with the passageway not this one."

"Come on, we need to get back to Gryffindor Tower," I muttered tiredly, pulling Scorpius up and helping him along.

We'd been walking (briskly) for five minutes when Scorpius spontaneously broke into laughter. I shot him a wary glance, sure that he had to have gone mental. There was nothing funny about our situation. Nothing at all. If we managed to reach the Common Room undetected – a miracle – there was no way we'd avoid punishment. Filch had seen our faces, he knew who we were and he would report us the first chance he got.

"What are you laughing at?"

"There's a pink rabbit waving at me…"

"No there isn't," I replied.

"Can't you see him, Rosie?"

I _knew_ he'd cracked then. He _never _called me Rosie because he knew I'd smack him if he did. My name was Rose, not Rosie or Rosie-posey-pudding-and-pie or anything else.

"No, because there's nothing there, Scorpius, except stairs and stone walls."

"I've definitely got a concussion," he grumbled, swaying as we began climbing the stairs in front of us.

Finally, by the hand of God or some other higher power, Scorpius and I made it back to the Common Room. It had been slow going, Scorpius having to sit down every so often, holding his aching head in his hands, breathing deeply to clear his head; but we'd done it. There'd been a few close shaves and we were inches away from being seen in the Library; but we'd evaded the prefects.

"Nimbletack," I panted to the portrait of the Fat Lady.

"Indeed," she replied before swinging open and admitting us into Gryffindor Tower.

"Where have you been?" James asked as we staggered into the deserted Common Room.

"Oh, here and there," I told him, setting Scorpius into a chair. "Al about?"

"Haven't seen him," James shrugged. "What's the matter with him?"

"Concussion," Scorpius said, choosing that moment to groan piteously and then violently throw up.

Repulsed, James and I scrambled away to avoid being hit.

"Let's get you to bed," I mumbled, trying to keep my mouth closed for fear that I'd join him in upending the contents of my stomach. He turned green as I pulled him up, but thankfully swallowed down the rising bile. The instant Scorpius' head hit his pillow in the dorm room he shared with Albus and the other Fourth Year Gryffindor boys, he was asleep. Worried, I filled the tumbler on his bedside cabinet with water using the Aguamenti charm.

Before leaving, I scanned the room for Albus, but his bed was empty. Troubled, I went to my own dormitory, sure that he had to turn up at some point, though his reappearance would probably cost us in house points.

I was shattered when I woke up the next morning, groggy and sore from all the running the previous evening. Though after a few moments, I dragged myself out of bed knowing that I couldn't pity myself when Scorpius would feel much worse. I pulled on my robes in a tired stupor and then left for Scorpius' dorm.

He was still asleep, snoring peacefully on his front. I cleared my throat and called his name. He frowned and rolled over, revealing a large, purple bruise on his forehead. After calling his name for five minutes, I got fed up with the gentle approach and grabbed the half-empty tumbler on his bed, throwing its contents over Scorpius' face.

He jerked awake, shocked and confused as to why he had gone to sleep dry and woken up soaked.

"Rose?" he asked, looking between the empty tumbler in my hand and his wet sheets, making the connection. "Rose!"

"What? You wouldn't wake up," I replied, defending my actions. It wasn't my fault he slept like a log.

"My head feels like it was run over by a train," he protested, "Leave me alone, Rose."

I patted his shoulder in sympathy and left him to dress.

Unlike last night, there were quite a few people milling about the Common Room, including Lily. She waved me over, asking "Did you find Al?"

I shook my head. "You still haven't seen him?"

"No," she answered, furrowing her brow and glancing around the room. I followed her gaze, looking past a group of First Years. When I felt someone else's gaze on me, I looked back, finding my eyes meeting with the First Year boy who'd stared at me over the dinner table. He waved like he knew me and then looked angry when I didn't smile or acknowledge him. I had no idea what was going on, but I didn't get the chance to think about it before Scorpius showed up.

"Isn't that the black-haired kid from yesterday-"

"Scorpius, what the hell happened to your head?!" Lily exclaimed, gawking at his bruise.

"What?" he asked, subconsciously reaching up towards it, wincing as his fingers brushed over the discoloured skin.

"You have the world's biggest bruise…"

"I do?" Shocked, he turned to check his reflection in the glass cabinet holding a few awards and trophies. "Rose! Why didn't you tell me?!"

Struggling not to smirk, I answered, "I assumed you'd look in a mirror to do your hair…"

"I'm a guy! I don't _do_ my hair!" he retorted.

I raised my eyebrows, looking pointedly at the quiff on top of his head that only gel could induce.

"It's natural," he protested, fingering the stiff curl of blonde hair.

"Right, as natural as our ginger," I quipped, indicating Lily and I. We both had the exact same shade of ginger – a deeper, auburn-tinged orange – that made us look incredibly similar despite the fact that I was two years Lily's senior. New students often thought we were twins, in fact.

Narrowing his eyes at us as Lily and I dissolved into giggles, Scorpius turned and left the Common Room.

"Think you hit a nerve?" Lily asked, clutching her stomach in mirth.

"Who cares? He'll get over it the second he has his bacon. Scorpius is so melodramatic in the mornings," I told her with a roll of my eyes, before leaving the Common Room with her.

"Guess you were right," Lily mumbled to me as we sat down at the Gryffindor table in the hall opposite Scorpius, who flashed us both a smile as he tucked into his bacon and eggs.

I'd barely taken a bite of my own fried breakfast when the Hogwarts clock tolled nine o'clock.

"What? It can't be nine already?"

"What's this, Rose? Losing your psychic time-keeping powers?" Scorpius teased.

I glowered at him, shovelling as many fried potatoes into my mouth as would fit before standing and pulling my bag over my shoulder. He should have known full well that with only six hours sleep, I was behind on my internal body clock.

"Herbology?"

"Herbology," I agreed, scouting the hall for Albus as we left out of habit. Of course, he wasn't there.

It drizzled lightly as we walked from the castle out to the greenhouses and queued up outside Greenhouse Five, which we were moving into to learn about some of the even more dangerous plants that Professor Dalton kept for some morbid reason.

We'd just been allowed to file into the glass building and set up in a 'u' shape around the table that virtually took up the whole greenhouse when one of the boys who shared Al and Scorpius' dorm turned around and asked excitedly, "Have you heard?"

"Heard what?" Scorpius questioned, leaning around me to look at Johnson Blakely.

"Some First Year is running around saying he's Albus Potter!"

I frowned and opened my mouth to speak but Scorpius beat me to it.

"Why? That's just ridiculous," he told Johnson.

"It's true. Saw the little bugger at it with my own eyes this morning – looks nothing like Al anyway."

Scorpius shrugged and turned back to look at Professor Dalton as he instructed us on how to handle the Explosive Endogenous Eraliotipus we would we be working with that day. I listened carefully, not wanting to be blown up before my fifteenth birthday in two months' time.

"Partners?" Scorpius asked.

"Sure," I replied, pulling on my dragon skin gloves. "Why don't you hold the leaves?"

He nodded and grabbed hold of the red stem and leaves, narrowly avoiding spearing his hand on a particularly large spike coming off the stem. Whilst he held the leaves away, I reached in to tear the spike off, keeping a watchful eye on the explosive grenade of a bulb growing at the base of the stem.

After our Herbology lesson, Scorpius and I traipsed back up to the castle for our transfiguration lesson, having to go all the way up to the Sixth Floor, as the First Floor corridor was out of bounds, meaning many of the classes had been forced to relocate. I looked for Albus again, but he didn't turn up. In the break, I skipped my chance at caffeine and went to the Fourth Floor to visit the Hospital Wing in case he'd turned up there, but Madam Pomfrey assured me that my cousin was not under her medical care.

Worried, I decided to do something I'd never done. I was going to cut class. Catching Scorpius on his way up from the Great Hall, I pulled him aside.

"Come with me," I said, hurrying back up to the Seventh Floor and Gryffindor Tower.

"Rose, where are we going? We've got Ancient Runes next-"

"-I know, but we're not going. We're going looking for Albus," I muttered, dashing up the dormitory staircase and inside to the room I shared with the other Fourth Year Gryffindors. "I just need to find something."

"What? Maybe I could help," Scorpius called from outside the door, unable to come past the boundary line.

"It's a bunch of new Skiving Snackboxes Uncle George sent me. They won't be in the shop for another three months."

"Cool!"

"I know I kept them here somewhere…" I turfed everything out of my trunk, sending robes and clothes and books flying everywhere. The dorm was a mess by the time I shouted, "Aha! Got them!" Triumphant, I hurried back to Scorpius and held a wrapped sweet out to him.

"Ooh, apple crumble flavoured! What does this one do?"

"I think they make one of your fingers fall off and then grow back when you eat the other half…" At the look of horror on his face, I added, "They're fully tested."

"What about the one you have?"

I inspected the pink and blue bubblegum flavoured sweet I held in my other palm. "It's a Bone-breaking Bon-Bon," I replied.

"I think I'll stick with losing a finger," Scorpius mumbled, looking apprehensively at his Skiving Snackbox as he unwrapped and bit into the golden end. I ate half of my own, gritting my teeth as pain ripped through my arm and a crack resounded from my elbow. Breathing out through my mouth, I looked up at Scorpius and his hands that still had eight fingers and two thumbs. He shrugged before staring open-mouthed at his left hand where one of his fingers appeared to be in the process of being bitten off by some invisible creature, leaving teeth marks behind. Blood spurted and trickled from the wound.

"Come on – we should go to see Professor Vector and then eat the other halves." I slid the remaining half of the sweet into my pocket and lead the way down into the Common Room, holding my broken bone in to my body, almost cradling it. Scorpius, on the other hand, held his hand with the missing finger out in front of his at arm's length, as though afraid that it might attack him at any moment.

At the sight of our grievous injuries, Professor Vector sent us to the Hospital Wing, not even demanding an explanation of what had happened.

As soon as the classroom door swung shut behind us, I shoved the blue half of my Bone-breaking Bon-Bon into my mouth. When I looked Scorpius was holding an empty wrapper, the light yellow half of his Snackbox already in his mouth.

With my elbow mended, I turned to inspect Scorpius' finger, finding him already flexing it.

"That's just weird," he muttered, almost freaked out by his own appendage and the blood still staining his hand.

Rolling my eyes, I turned on my heel and started walking. I was determined to search every room in the castle if I had to. By the time Lunch rolled around, we had only covered the Seventh and Sixth floor and were disappointed at finding no sign of him. Since we were 'injured' and meant to be in the Hospital Wing, Scor and I didn't think it safe to go to Lunch and headed back to the Common Room to wait until everyone else returned to lessons.

I was surprised to find the Common Room not empty. James, of all people, was stood with the First Year boy who kept staring at me, the two of them apparently arguing about something.

"Pull the other one. I know my idiotic brother, and you are not him, runt!"

"No, James, you don't understand! It's me! Al!"

"Stop lying!" James yelled.

"Rose, tell him!" the boy replied desperately, looking round and catching sight of me.

I froze.

"Tell us something only Albus would know," Scorpius said suddenly, pointing at the First Year.

"Like what?"

"Ah, see!" James exclaimed. "If you were Al you could tell us anything!"

"Fine, I-I-I I, er, I almost fell down the toilet when I was eighteen months old."

"Pssh, old news. I told everyone that ages ago," James said. "Anyone could have told you that."

"You did what?! James, you complete arse! I'm going to kill you!" bellowed the First Year, launching at James and trying unsuccessfully to punch him as my cousin held him at arm's length with a well-placed hand on his forehead.

"James, stop," I said slowly. "I think it's really him. I think it's Al…"

"Finally someone sees sense!"

"Rose, are you joking?" Scorpius asked. "He looks nothing like Al – the only similarity is that they both have black hair."

"Guys, it is me," he said emphatically. "I went down the shortcut and found this room with this weird machine-y thing. I was walking around it, thinking about our argument and when I said I wished I was a first year-"

"Oh no," I whispered.

"Oh yes," Albus said. "It made me look like this – turned me back into a First Year. I didn't realise at first but nobody recognised me and then I finally saw a mirror. You have to help me!"

"I swear you weren't that short in First Year," Scorpius muttered, frowning as he inspected Al, trying to find his features in the miniaturised version of him.

"Shut up, Scorp!"

"It must be you," Scorpius said in awe. "Only you call me Scorp."

"This is insane," James mumbled, sinking into a chair because his legs could no longer support him.

"Come on, take us to the machine."

"Later," Al said with a shake of his head. "I've got class."

"What? Don't tell me you've actually been going to First Year classes?"

"Yeah, they're well easy," he laughed. "I've got my 'first' flying lesson next. Madam Hooch is going to think I'm God's gift to broomsticks."

"Awesome," Scorpius grinned, hi-fiving him.

"Fine! Go enjoy showing off!" I snapped, annoyed at how Albus had yet to apologise for arguing with us.

Albus shot Scorpius a smirk and ran out of the Common Room, leaving Scorpius and me with James.

"I apologise on his behalf. Only Al could get himself into this kind of trouble," James told us before asking, "Shouldn't you be getting back to class too."

"Took Skiving Snackboxes so we could search for him. I was worried sick and he has no idea," I griped. "What about you? Aren't you meant to be with the other Seventh Years?"

He shook his head. "Free period."

The three of us sat there for the rest of the afternoon, James and I dwelling on our feelings of irritation and Scorpius sitting quietly because of the atmosphere that said neither of us would talk to him anyway.

My stomach rumbled, and I cursed Al again for causing me to skip lunch for him.

As the clock in the Clocktower tolled, I shot to my feet, starving and eager to eat. Neither Scorpius or James was far behind me as I darted through the portrait hole and ran down the Grand Staircase, sprinting so fast that we the fifth, sixth and seventh people to sit down at the Gryffindor table.

Fred was next in, sitting down beside James. Between mouthfuls, James explained about Albus and his predicament. Dom and Lily were similarly informed, James seeming to become slightly calmer as he explained the situation, Lily possibly helping and counselling him.

Our group got a lot of odd looks as Al, in the guise of a first year, sat down with us. Unless siblings were involved, students rarely crossed the age barrier at the house tables. And even though he _was_ related to us, Al didn't look like Albus Potter – at least not the Albus Potter that everybody knew.

It wasn't just the other students looking. Fred stared in shock, completely unprepared despite James' story. Dom gaped, the peas on her fork falling unnoticed into her lap.

"Well done, Al," Lily said sarcastically.

"It's not my fault," he protested.

"How is it _not_ your fault?" I asked.

"Nobody told us there was some sort of time machine hidden in the castle," he pointed out.

"_Because nobody was meant to know, obviously,"_ James replied, growing angry again.

"Well it wasn't very well hidden – just stuck in some empty room on the First Floor corridor."

Shaking his head and breathing deeply, James got up and walked off.

"Hey! I thought you were going to help me!" Al shouted after him.

Without looking back, James stormed out of the hall, the tips of his ears poking out of his hair flushing red with anger. But, when we left the hall, he was stood outside waiting for us all.

"Are we reversing this thing or not?"

James led the way up the stairs out of the Entrance Hall and acted as the look out, waiting and looking around to make sure the coast was clear before following us through the portrait and into the forbidden corridor.

"Let's make this quick. Lead the way, Al," he instructed.

Al nodded tersely and set off down the corridor, stopping – strangely – outside the room with the wooden box that Scorpius and I had found.

"Hang on," I said, "Scorpius and I looked for you in there. There's no machine, just a useless wooden box."

Al gave me a mischievous grin but said nothing as he opened the door and stepped in, lighting his wand with Lumos to illuminate the bare room.

"See it's just a box. No machine. No magic buttons."

"Just wait," Albus replied, with a sing-song tone in his confident voice as he celebrated the fact that he apparently knew something I didn't for once. He strode purposefully over to the wooden box that reached from the floor to the ceiling and as he touched it, something peculiar happened and I found myself no longer looking at a wooden box but a metal machine with indentations that were obviously designed for hands to be placed in.

"So…what do we do?" Fred asked, lending his voice to the question we'd all been thinking.

"I'm not entirely sure how it works, but you touch it, and think about what you want to happen as far as I can tell. There's enough space for all of us to put our hands on it…"

Following Al's commands, we each placed a hand in a designated space and closed our eyes.

"Now think about making me fourteen again," he pleaded.

_Make Albus fourteen again. Turn Albus back to a Fourth Year._

I _was _thinking about Albus, but then since it seemed to be some sort of time machine we were using, I couldn't help thinking about the ancient witches and wizards we'd learnt about in History of Magic. A time machine could be the solution to finding out all the answers to my questions.

A slight spinning sensation surrounded me, a compression of air pressing against my body, forcing me closer to the machine. The sound of screaming filled the air, but I couldn't tell if it was me making the noise or one of the others. In the pit of my stomach, I felt a lurch almost like driving over a hill and having your stomach drop on the other side.

When I opened my eyes, I already knew something was wrong. I was still stood facing the machine, unable to see anyone but Scorpius and Al who were stood on either side of me.

"What do I look like?!" Al demanded. "Somebody light their wand!"

"Lumos," I commanded, before pointing the lit wand tip at Albus' face.

"Like a wart on the end of my nose," James replied in a deadpan voice from further round the machine.

Al blanched.

"Don't worry, mate, you look fine," Scorpius told him, stepping away from the machine and dusting his hands off. "You look like yourself."

"Phew!"

With everything back to normal, we all stepped away from the machine. I rubbed my hands together, trying to get rid of the tingling burn in them, before looking around. My mouth gaped. I didn't know what had happened, but we were no longer in the room off the First Floor corridor in Hogwarts. We were in a whole other place entirely.

* * *

**A/N: So, bit of a cliffhanger ending there. It's probably obvious what's happened, but where do you think they are? I'll let you all know in the next chapter, but it'd be interesting to hear what some of you guys reckon. I'd also love to know what you thought of the chapter, so leave a review if you've got time. **

**Many thanks for reading! **

**Much love, SabreDae**

**xxxxxx**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Hey all! Thanks to Lizaluvsdoggies, RosexScorpius4ever, dovepatronus, Guest, Pika-Thunder, CNGB and LilDevyl for reviewing! You guys are the best! I hope you all enjoy this chapter!**

* * *

"Is it just me or does this look like the inside of a pyramid to anyone else?" Fred asked, looking at the sloped walls around us.

"Where the hell are we?" James demanded.

Nudging something on the floor with my foot, I gasped. "Judging by this treasure and the walls, I'd say that Fred's right. We're in a pyramid, but I think we've travelled further than just to Egypt."

"What do you mean?" Scorpius asked, crouching beside me to look at the gold inlaid jug I had found.

"It's new," I pointed out. "Look, there are no cracks. It's _whole_. How many pieces of treasure like this have you seen that are still in one piece?"

Scorpius gulped. "None."

"Exactly."

"Will you two stop being so smart and tell us what's going on?" Al interrupted sharply.

"I think we're in _Ancient _Egypt…" I said, pausing to let the words sink in.

A moment of silence passed. Then all hell broke loose.

"What?!"

"How did this happen?"

"Al! This is all your fault!"

"My fault? I didn't do anything!"

"That sodding machine!"

"I knew this was a bad idea!"

I had no idea who was speaking. Everyone's voices were overlapping.

"Shut up!" Scorpius yelled suddenly, his voice echoing off the walls.

Silence fell again and everyone turned to look at him.

"Arguing's getting us nowhere," he said pointedly. "We need to talk it through and work out what happened. Al, you said we just had to think about making you a Fourth Year again…"

"I told you I wasn't sure how the machine worked, but yeah, it seems to work like that. I am back to normal after all…"

"Yeah, as long as normal means having no brain cells," James muttered, glaring at his younger brother. "We should have just used a bloody ageing potion and avoided that machine."

"Too late now," Dom told him, clearly unhappy with the situation too.

"I bet we're going to be stuck here forever," Al interrupted.

"Would you stop being so melodramatic? _I _can get us out of here," I said rationally. I had, after all, gotten Scorpius and Albus out of plenty of scrapes before, including the time in second year when they managed to get into a fight with the centaurs.

"Oh really?" Fred asked. "Because, newsflash, Rose, we have no idea how we even got here."

Wincing, I replied, "Actually, I think I know."

"Rose? What did you do?" Lily asked, seeming to sense my guilt.

"I didn't do it on purpose, I swear! I _was _thinking about turning Al back into a Fourth Year, but…then…something else sort of popped into my head."

"What did you think about, Rose?" they asked slowly, all speaking in exact synchronicity.

"I-thought-about-ancient-wizards-and-how-magic-developed-and-how-it-would-be-interesting-to-see-it-actually-happen," I blurted, waiting for beams of light to start flying and for me to be transformed into a guinea pig or something.

"Rose!" Scorpius yelled, glaring at me.

"Wait, you understood that?" Albus asked, looking in amazement at his best friend.

"Yeah…why, didn't you?"

"Scorpius, Rose was speaking at the speed of light."

"Shut up, Fred!" I yelled.

"Oh, shit," James muttered.

"What now?" I demanded. "Al, stop messing around with the mummies or whatever it is you're obviously doing."

"Hey, I'm not doing anything," he said indignantly, waving at me from across the room.

"No, Rose, you don't understand-"

"-What don't I understand James? Huh?"

"No, seriously, we have a major problem!" James exclaimed pointing behind me.

"Oh, holy mother of… he's right, Rose, you really need to turn around," Fred added, staring with panicked eyes over my shoulder.

I looked between James, Fred, Albus, Scorpius, Dom and Lily's faces taking in the range of shock, panic, fear and apprehension on their faces, before spinning on my heel and finding myself face to face with a man painted gold, wearing only a kilt.

"Oh dear," I gulped.

Without speaking, the Egyptian grabbed me by the arm and began dragging me out of the room. His friends took hold of the others and began hauling them out of the room after me, ignoring their shouts and struggles, though whether that was because they didn't understand us or because they didn't care, it was impossible to tell. Through the twists and turns of the pyramid, we were taken until we emerged in to what had to be the brightest sunlight I'd ever seen. My eyes burned and heat washed over me.

"Oh, Merlin, that's bright!" Al exclaimed as he was yanked out behind me. "Phwoar, it's hot! Why do Hogwarts make us wear black?"

As my eyes accustomed, I took in the sand beneath my feet, noting how it seemed to burn through the rubber soles of my shoes, and the azure sky. As far as the eye could see, sand stretched on and on. I had no idea in Egypt where we were, but judging from the water running alongside us, we were somewhere near the Nile. If I had to guess from the size of the pyramid I had just been brought out of, I'd have said it was the Great Pyramid of Giza. My guess was confirmed by the sight of the Great Sphinx looming in the distance. I'd seen many pictures of the ruins in my father's pictures from his childhood holiday in Egypt.

What was odd, however, was seeing the pyramid and sphinx in their whole state with one of the smaller pyramids missing and one in the process of being built, workers lugging a great plainstone block up the side of the pyramid.

We were dragged right up the edge of the river Nile, where drifting on the waters the man I presumed to the Pharaoh sat being fanned on his throne in the middle of a raft-like boat.

"What were you doing in my father's pyramid?"

"Er…" Scorpius stuttered.

"I asked you a question," the Pharaoh said.

"Answer Pharoah Khafne!" the painted man holding me demanded.

"Rose, do something," James hissed.

"Why me? You're the oldest," I whispered back.

"But you're the smartest!"

"Enough!" the Pharaoh shouted. "Take them away! Perhaps they'll be more willing to talk when they've spent the day in chains. I'm sure you'll enjoy the prison once we arrive at my palace. Bring them on board."

The Pharaoh's men manhandled us on board the boat and proceeded to tie us to the mast.

"I guess things just went from bad to worse," Scorpius muttered.

"Rose, can you reach my wand?" James said out of the side of his mouth. "It's up my sleeve and your hands are nearest to it."

"What's the point?" Fred said bitterly. "So we can use magic to free ourselves, but then what are we going to do? They outnumber us and they know the pyramid better than us – there's no way we'd get back to the machine with all the different corridors we walked down."

"He's right, James. We might as well wait and try to get the Pharaoh on our side. I'm sure he'll understand once we find a way to explain who we are…" I said uncertainly.

"At least we can tick getting arrested off the bucket list, James," Fred joked.

"Somehow, I didn't quite picture it this way."

"Can you two be serious for once?" Lily asked, unimpressed by their trying to make light of the situation.

"Sorry, would you rather we moped and brought everyone's mood down," Fred replied sardonically.

"Stop talking!" one of the Pharaoh's body guards ordered.

After sitting for a few hours in silence, we finally arrived at port and were escorted through Memphis until we reached a hole in the ground which we were promptly thrown into. I landed with an oof before Scorpius was thrown in after me, falling across me.

I groaned and tried to move, finding Scorpius' weight made it impossible.

"Get off," I moaned, my body aching from the surprisingly hard landing and what felt like ten small stones digging into my back.

"Sorry," he muttered. In the dark he, clambered onto his knees, moving easily through lack of pain after finding a much softer landing on my body. However, the absence of light complicated things and as he moved, he slipped and fell on me again, his face just inches away from mine.

He paused and felt about, touching my nose and lips.

"Scorpius?"

"Hmm?" he asked.

"Get off," I told him clearly and through gritted teeth, his added weight pushing my back onto the pebbles again.

"Right, yep, sorry."

As soon as his body had shifted off me, I sat up and reached for my wand, pulling it out from the pocket on the inside of my robes.

Lily and James had apparently had the same idea and all three of us lit our wands, illuminating the prisoner's pit we had been incarcerated in.

"Well how are we going to get out of this?" Dom asked, staring up at the opening in the ceiling that was at least eight foot off the ground.

"I think the answer to that, is we're not," Fred replied, examining the walls, scratching with his nail at one of the mud bricks.

"Well there's no guard up there as far as I can tell…" Lily mumbled, craning her neck.

"What about Levicorpus?" I asked. "If we can get someone up to the hole they can reach in and pulled the rest of us out."

"Worth a try, I guess," James said, standing and brushing down his robes to get rid of the sand that was already accumulating on the material. "I'll do the spell. I volunteer Al to be lifted."

"Hey!" Albus complained. "Why me?"

"You're the one who got us into this mess, Dingus."

"Technically I suppose so, but Rose is the reason we're here. Why doesn't she go?"

"Because I'm the oldest and I said you're going. Now stand right here, in the middle. Ready?"

Al nodded reluctantly, glancing at the hole nervously.

"Levicorpus!" James commanded, sending Al rocketing into the air and hanging underneath the rim of the opening. "Now grab on to the edge and I'll release you from the spell."

Al grunted and reached out his arms for the edge.

"This is weird, I don't like it," he called down as his fingers finally caught the edge of the hole.

James didn't bother to say the counter curse aloud, leaving Al in suspense and giving him a shock when the invisible force holding his legs up fell away, causing his legs to swing down and his upper body to crash into the wall from the momentum.

"Thanks for that," he yelled down sarcastically before beginning to haul himself up. "Whew, that was tough," he exclaimed as he stood on the outside of the hole looking down at us. "The coast's clear though."

Fred, the tallest of us went next, though he needed a boost from James to manage to grasp Al's dangling hand. Scorpius and I were waiting a long time whilst James tried to get Lily high enough into the air, practically throwing her for Fred and Al to catch.

Predictably, Scorpius started singing.

"_Now look at me I'm sparkling, a firework, a dancing flame. You will never put me out again. I'm glowing."_

"Scor?"

"_In face you can keep everything, yeah, yeah, except for me..."_

"Scorpius Malfoy," I said, waiting for him to answer.

"…_That you're never gonna ever take away from me, no. This is the part of me that you're never gonna ever take away from me, no. Throw your sticks and stones, throw your bombs and your blows but you're not gonna break my soul-"_

Giving up on the subtle approach, I leaned over and punched his arm.

"Ow! What?"

"You were singing again," I told him. "And it was getting on my nerves."

"I have a right to sing if I want to," he muttered exasperatedly.

"Fine, sing away," I replied, getting to my feet and allowing James to lift me up and within reach of Fred and Albus' hands.

From within the pit, I heard Scorpius sing, _"We're far from home, it's for the better. What we dream, it's all that matters. We're on our way: united. Turn the crowd up now, we'll never back down. Shoot down a skyline, watch it on primetime. Turn up the love now, listen up now, turn up the love. Who's gonna save the world tonight? Who's gonna bring it back to life? We're gonna make it you and I. We're gonna save the world tonight."_ And then he was being helped out by Fred, smirking at me in the fading daylight.

As soon as James was out of the pit, with the assistance of Levicorpus again, we set off. Of course, we had no idea where we going, but anywhere was better than the prison in the ground, right?

Al started forward, ostensibly leading from the front, but every so often he would confer with Scorpius over which street we should go down.

"Hang on," Dom said. "Why does Albus get to decide which way we go?"

"Because I have superior senses of direction," he replied, puffing his chest out.

Lily and James both looked at one another and burst out laughing.

Glaring at them Al continued, "What? I do!"

"Which was is the pit then?" Lily tested, snorting when Al turned full circle before pointing the wrong way. "Let's let someone else navigate. Dom?"

"I suppose I could, but only if Rose helps – she knows the most about Egypt."

"Deal," I replied, smiling at her and examining the buildings around us. "Okay, so that's the scribal school and over there, that's the temple of Ptah, those people there are artisans coming from the pyramids…so I think we should go this way."

"How do you know all that?!" Al exclaimed, looking at me like I was an alien from space.

"I read, Albus."

Lily laughed again, high-fiving James as we started walking again, having only just turned a corner when we came face to face with a group of three soldiers, all of them carrying a sharp-looking spear and a shield in the shape of a pointed-arch doorway.

"Good navigation, Rose," Albus scoffed as we turned and ran, the soldiers chasing after us. "Sod this cloak!" As we ran, Albus grabbed his wand and shucked off his heavy Hogwarts winter cloak, leaving it to be trampled in our wake.

"Good idea," Scorpius panted, removing his own and allowing it to billow out behind him before he let go, the black material flying into the soldier's faces and blinding them.

"This way!" Fred called from the front, having stayed at the back of the group previously.

We followed him down a side street, scrambling to a halt as we emerged in the festival square, coming face to face with the Pharaoh, his wife and the Vizier.

"How did you get out?" he demanded.

We all remained silent. What were we supposed to say? We had our wands out and we could easily try to explain about magic but what if it messed up the timeline and changed the future?

The soldiers approached up the rear, trapping us in the square, more appearing from other streets to surround us. As one of the ones Scorpius had blinded with his cloak jabbed Scor in the back with the tip of his spear, Albus instinctively turned and shouted, "Stupify!" The crowd of soldiers and citizens gathering to watch the spectacle gasped and staggered back as the soldier fell backwards.

"He's dead!" someone shouted.

"No, he's not," Fred muttered, tutting his tongue and rolling his eyes.

"Spirits," the Pharaoh decided. "They're evil spirits!"

"Well, that's not good," Al mumbled.

"You idiot!" James yelled. "This is your fault, Albus, so you can put it right and explain to the Pharaoh that we're not bad spirits and that we just want to go home."

Taken aback, Albus nodded. "Okay." He took a few steps forward, stopping as every soldier in the area moved in synchronisation so surround him, levelling their spears around his midriff. Hands up in alarm, he began speaking. "Hello, my name's Albus and er, I'm not an evil spirit. I'm a wizard."

"Don't tell them that!" James called, face-palming.

"Hey, you told me to put it right!"

"Yes, but not to – oh never mind."

"A wizard, you say? What is a wizard?"

"Oh boy, this could take a while," Lily muttered.

"Well, I'm a wizard and it means I'm different from Muggles-"

"-Muggles?" the Vizier asked.

"Right, you don't know about Muggles. Well a Muggle is someone who can't use magic-"

"-Magic?"

Groaning, Al continued trying to explain, the situation seeming to get more and more complex with every interruption and question the Egyptians asked. Finally though, the Pharaoh and his accompanying government and guards seemed to understand and demanded to be shown more magic.

Albus agreed to the demonstration and looked around before uncertainly saying, "Accio pottery." I winced as from every building in the vicinity flew something like twenty five vases and pots, all of them colliding with Al who was too late in ducking. "Ow," he complained, getting to his feet carefully to avoid stabbing his fingers on one of the numerous shards of pottery surrounding him.

"I would like to invite you to my court," the Pharaoh said after much conferring with his wife and the Vizier, who clearly disagreed, frowning and glaring at us as the Pharaoh announced his decision. The soldiers lowered their spears and I finally breathed a sigh of relief. Perhaps we would be able to get home after all.

* * *

**A/N: So, they're in Egypt. Congratulations to those of you who guessed right. However, the plan for this story is to have them spend a few chapters in one time before going somewhere else, so your guess may yet appear. Also, if there is somewhere you would like them to go, I'm happy to take requests. The other Next Generation characters will appear and go places with them, I'm sure. **

**I'd really appreciate some thoughts on the chapter, so leave a review if you've got time. Also, the songs that Scorpius sings all the time – I don't own them, of course. Largely they appear because I listen to music whilst I write. If you have a song you'd like me to include, I'd be more than happy to oblige. **

**Thanks for reading!**

**Much love, SabreDae**

**xxxxxxxxx**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Hey guys, sorry for how late this chapter is. Things are a little busy here with preparations for me moving and going to university tomorrow. I've barely had any time to write. I'm also not sure when the next chapter will be up, because obviously my main priority during fresher's week at university will be meeting and making friends with people, but I will try my best to get something up soon. Quick thanks go to LilDevyl, Pika-Thunder, RosexScorpius, Lizaluvsdoggies and the anonymous reviewer for reviewing the last chapter!**

* * *

"Does anyone else think it's weird that we can understand them?" Fred asked, nodding towards a group of serving girls chatting and shooting us looks every few seconds, making it clear (if it wasn't already obvious from what we could hear) the topic of conversation was us.

"The time machine clearly responds to thought, Fred, and the lack of a language barrier surprises you?" Lily replied with a roll of her eyes.

We were sat inside the Pharaoh's palace, watching musicians strumming harps and playing flutes whilst acrobats flipped and tumbled around the room. The Pharaoh had ordered the preparation of a party, much to the Vizier's chagrin, to celebrate our arrival. Though, why it was such a joyous occasion, we had yet to find out.

"What do you think they want with us?" James asked me in an undertone, shooting anxious glances at the royal family seated upon thrones further down the room.

"How should I know?"

"Well, you're the expert," he muttered. "I thought might have some idea or be able to speculate at least."

"Perhaps they want us to help them with a problem of some sort or maybe they want us to teach them magic," Scorpius suggested, his foot still tapping in time with the musicians. It was a wonder he hadn't leapt into the centre of the room and started dancing and performing with the acrobats.

"Whatever it is, they'll have to tell us at some point."

Finally the food that had spent the past half hour being prepared was brought in upon great platters borne across the shoulders of more serving staff whose job it was to wait on the guests. Albus instantly tucked into some type of red meat and partook of some bread soaked in what looked like honey, his fingers getting covered in the substance; whilst the rest of us more hesitantly ate the feast the pharaoh had requested on our behalf.

Half-way through the course, more servants appeared, all of them carrying a goblet either filled to the brim with wine or beer. Despite my protests, the servant shoved my goblet into my hand.

"I shouldn't," Al said, copying my refusals. "I'm underage-"

"You refuse our generosity?!" the Pharaoh shouted suddenly. "Drink!"

Any further objections disappeared and without a second thought, the seven of us guzzled at the alcohol. The wine left a bitter taste on my tongue, but I knew I shouldn't complain. Satisfied that we were getting drunk quicker than everyone else in the room, the Pharaoh reclined back in his throne.

By the time Lily had sunk to the floor, shooting everyone who tried to talk to her a surly glance, and Scorpius had become overly-demonstrative, constantly touching someone, I had to have drunk at least four goblets immediately one after another. I was so tipsy, swaying on the spot, that it was getting hard to tell though.

"Rose, you're so pretty," Scorpius gushed, touching my cheeks and pushing my mane of hair off my face. "Why don't you ever wear your hair up? You look amazing with it away from your face." Had I not been so intoxicated I would have slapped his hand away for sure, but given my inebriated state, I found myself leaning closer to him, staring and marvelling again at the flecks of colour in his slate grey eyes.

"_Isn't she lovely?" _Scorpius began singing, his words slightly jumbled from the beer and wine.

"Stop hitting on my cousin," Albus slurred, saving me from doing something I knew I would regret in the morning. Scorpius and I sprang apart, looking awkwardly at one another before heading in opposite directions.

"Careful," someone scolded as I bumped into them. With all the alcohol, I could barely control my limbs.

"Sorry," I told the Vizier.

He opened his mouth to say something before pausing to scrutinise me, his gaze lingering on my face far longer than was necessary. I looked left and right, trying to find something, anything to focus on other than him. I tried to move, but found my limbs were almost frozen in place. Finally, he looked away and I felt relief flood through me as I staggered away, unable to not see the smirk spreading across his tanned features.

"You," he called. I turned to be sure he wasn't still talking to me, but he was in fact pointing at one of the servants stood idle by the entrance to the room. "Escort the wizards to their rooms."

As a rowdy group, we were shown out and through a network of halls until we finally reached our rooms.

* * *

My head pounded awfully as I blinked and tried to open my eyes against the bright sunlight streaming in through the shift curtains hiding the balcony. The rustling sound coming from the wooden-slat bed beside me was enough to make me bolt upright, regardless of the rising nausea. I could barely remember the previous night. What had I done? Fearfully, I peeked down at the bed, sighing with relief as I realised it was only Lily who was sharing my bed. Yawning, I swung my legs out, placing my feet flat on the floor only to find I was still wearing my shoes.

Suddenly the door burst open and James stood in the doorway. "I just woke up with this gold body paint all over me! That party was awesome last night! I love it here!"

"James, get out!" Lily groaned with her eyes still closed.

"Somebody's moody this morning," he teased.

"No, somebody's hungover and is completely willing to use the bat bogey hex on her annoying brother if he doesn't bog off."

James grinned and ducked out of the room, clapping rhythmically as he walked back to the room the boys had been given to share.

"I'm going to be sick," Lily moaned.

Ignoring my own queasy stomach, I leapt away from the bed and legged it out the door before she could throw up all over me, almost bashing into a servant in the corridor.

"The Vizier wishes to see you," she said, bowing to me.

"Oh, thanks, I'll just go and get everyone-"

"He only wishes to see you."

"Okay…" I couldn't help wondering why the Vizier didn't want to talk to all of us as I followed the servant.

Finally the servant girl stopped and bowed again, one of her arms held out towards the door in front of us, ushering me in. My mouth gaped open at the sight within, taking in the steam pirouetting off cauldrons full of viscous brown and grey potions, the pieces of copper and iron piled on a wooden table along with various tools.

"An alchemy lab," I breathed in awe. I'd had no idea things were so far developed in Ancient Egypt.

"Yes, but why does it not work?" The Vizier asked, walking around one of the cauldrons. "Why is there no gold? You must make it work."

"Hang on, I know nothing about alchemy – none of us do. It's only an option for exceptional NEWT students-"

"-It is the Pharaoh's wish. You will do it or you will be punished. It has been almost a year since the Pharaoh allowed me to throw somebody to the crocodiles…I yearn to do it again," he threatened, pushing past me and shutting the door behind him.

"Brilliant," I sighed, moving to inspect the contents of the various cauldrons. Each of them was a different shade of brown or grey, some more viscous than others as though they were close to becoming gold but hadn't quite managed it.

"Rose?! Where are you for Merlin's sake?!" Albus shouted loudly from outdoors.

"In here!" I yelled back, watching the door and waiting for him to appear.

"Er…Rose…the door's locked!"

"What are you? A wizard or a Muggle?"

After remembering that his wand was somewhere on his person and unlocking the door, Al appeared, looking somewhat sheepish.

"What are you doing in here?" he asked, wrinkling his nose at the slight burning smell.

"Oh, nothing. Just trying to save our lives by turning these metals into gold," I answered, hurrying to stir the burning potion.

"I'll get Scorpius. His mum did Alchemy at school," Al mumbled, dashing out of the room.

Barely ten minutes later he was back and out of breath with a confused Scorpius standing alongside him.

"Somebody tell me what's going on," Scorpius demanded, holding a hand to his head and wincing at the stomach-churning, acrid smoke being emitted from the cauldrons. There were just so many of them that I couldn't keep on top of the situation. Whilst I stopped one from burning, another simmered over, scolding liquid coating the floor.

"I know why the Pharaoh wants us here," I replied, before hurrying to another cauldron to contain its spitting.

Scorpius waited a few moments before saying, "Would you care to enlighten me?"

Speaking as quickly as possible whilst I focused on the six or seven cauldrons, I told him, "Well, according to the Vizier, they've been trying to create gold but haven't had any luck. He also said that if we don't manage it, he'll feed us to the crocodiles."

"Crocodiles?" Al interrupted. "I haven't seen any crocodiles."

Forgetting about my stirring, I turned to stare at him in astonishment. "How did you miss the one in the pool in the throne room?"

"Hey! I was drunk!"

"So was I," I pointed out.

"Well then you must be super-observant because you didn't see it either, did you, Scorp?"

I turned to Scorpius only to find he wouldn't meet my eyes. Instead, he looked at the ground with pink ear-tips as he replied, "Actually, I did."

"You two must be made for each other then," Al grumbled.

"Shut up!" Scorpius suddenly exclaimed, surprising both Al and me. "Why don't you go and get the others. We'll all need to help if we're going to survive."

Moaning to himself, Al left again.

"Sorry about him-" I started to say before being cut off by Scorpius.

"Rose…do you…er…remember anything of last night?"

"No, why?"

"You don't remember anything I said or did?" he asked, looking embarrassed.

"Not that I can think of…although I do have a strange recollection of Al telling you to stop hitting on me, which is ridiculous anyway if you think about it because, I mean, you and I we don't even like each other – not like that anyway," I rambled. "We didn't kiss or something did we? No, we can't have," I said, not giving him a chance to answer, though his mouth flapped open and closed like a fish a few times. "I'd _definitely _remember if we did _that_! No, we definitely didn't kiss…" My eyes widened as memories of the previous night flashed through my head.

Seeing the look on my face, Scorpius blurted out an apology. "I'm so sorry, Rose. I don't even know why I said it. I don't even fancy you!"

"Exactly, I don't fancy you either," I replied, though I was affronted by the way he said it – like I just wasn't fancy-able and that no-one would ever love me. Although, come to think about it, no-one ever had expressed any interest… Was there something wrong with me?

"Right, so we're okay? Still friends?"

"Yep, of course!"

"Great," he said with a relieved smile. "It is true though."

"What's true?" I asked, frowning in confusion.

"What I said last night," he clarified.

"But…what did you say?" I remembered him touching my cheek and standing way too close for personal boundaries to still exist, but that was it.

"You don't remember?"

I shook my head, wondering why he still hadn't grasped that fact.

Pink with embarrassment again, he mumbled, "I said you were pretty."

I opened my mouth, trying to find something to say.

"Which, you are," he added.

"Thanks, I guess."

"What's Albus done now?" James asked, strolling into the room with a backward glance at his brother.

"Nothing! I swear!" Albus professed.

"Rose?" James asked, turning to me for confirmation.

"He's telling the truth. He hasn't done anything."

"Then what are we doing here?" Fred asked, peering into one of the cauldrons.

"Oh, the usual. Create gold, avoid death by crocodile. Same old, same old" Al joked.

"Wait, create gold?"

"Uh huh," Al replied, picking up one of the lumps of iron and tossing it into the air out of boredom.

"I knew I should have taken alchemy," James cursed.

"You? Alchemy?" Lily scoffed. "It's for smart people remember."

"Hey," he complained.

"Would you all just shut up and help!" I exclaimed, pointing to the cauldron emitting sparks behind me.

"Right, sorry," Lily said. "What can we do?"

"Stir!"

Each of them took a cauldron until Scorpius and I were left standing at one of the tables and trying to work out a plan.

"I don't understand. From what I know, it should be working," Scorpius said. "They've got enough heat, the right metals and as far as I can tell they've added enough water."

"What about reagents, though?"

"Well, obviously they don't have poppies here, but if they've used lotus flower essence, then it should still work. Inconvenient that the Vizier couldn't stick around. There's no way to be sure they used lotus essence other than add more-"

"-But won't that..." I asked, trailing off rather than voice aloud the possibility of an explosion.

Scorpius nodded.

"Dom?" he asked, "Could you go outside and get some lotus flowers? They're white and-"

"I know what they look like," she cut in. "Victoire had them in her hair when she married Teddy."

"Great, thanks," he replied. "Al? Could you go and find the Vizier?"

"Why me?" he moaned. "He hates me. He's always glaring. Couldn't someone else go?"

"Well seeing as you're not stirring properly anyway, it's probably better if it's you."

"Fine!"

Scorpius and I took over the remaining cauldrons and waited for them to return.

"Think you know what you're doing?" Fred asked hopefully.

"To some extent," Scorpius answered, his tongue poking out as he concentrated on stirring.

Dom returned first, clutching a handful of crushed lotus flowers. She handed them to Scorpius and took over his cauldron so that he could carefully slice the petals enough to squeeze some of the inner juice out of them and into my cauldron.

I held my breath as I stirred, hoping and praying that the mixture wouldn't explode in my face. Sighing with relief, I said, "Well obviously they didn't put any in-"

Scorpius pulled me back just in time, but the tips of my hair still got caught in the explosion and set alight, smoking and smouldering.

"Shit!" James yelled as the flames spread around the room, consuming the other cauldrons and melting them, alighting the walls and tables, trapping us.

Fred bellowed a spell and grabbed Dom, before legging it, the two of them passing through the fire unharmed. James was quick to take Lily's arm and do the same, leaving Scorpius and me on the floor with fire spreading all around. Hurrying to my feet, I seized Scorpius' hand and tugged, but he just fell back to the ground the second he bent his leg, gripping it in agony.

I glanced at the doorway, where I could see James, Fred, Dom and Lily all yelling.

"No!" Scorpius exclaimed. "Don't leave me, Rose!"

"You need help."

"Please don't leave me alone!"

"I'll be right back, I promise," I replied, squeezing his hand before letting go.

"_Don't go, don't leave, please stay with me 'cause you are the only thing I need to get by, to get by!"_

I could hear him singing even from outside the room.

"Scorpius' is hurt," I told Fred and James breathlessly. "I can't lift him by myself."

"Say no more," James responded, nodding to Fred. As one they made themselves immune to fire again with the same spell and leapt back into the room, rolling to avoid a falling beam from the ceiling. Flames filled the doorway, blocking them from view. In panic, my heart beat erratically. Dom and Lily took my hands, the three of us squeezing each other's fingers so hard they turned purple.

I almost screamed when the three of them reappeared in the doorway, Scorpius in between my two older cousins with his arms over their shoulders.

They rushed out of the room as another explosion sounded from within and the six of us leant against the wall, sinking until we were sat on the floor.

"I don't think anybody's going to be pleased about that." James muttered.

Fred cracked a smile, Scorpius snorted.

"At least no-one was hurt," I said, pointing out the bright side.

We sat in silence for a few moments.

"Wonder where Al is," said to himself, looking down the corridor.

"Probably getting himself into trouble," James sighed, getting to his feet. "I'd better go and look for him. Honestly he's worse than I was."

"You won't have far to look," Scorpius replied, struggling to his own feet and pointing down one end of the corridor in alarm.

The rest of us followed his hand to find Albus running full pelt towards us, with the Vizier and a group of guards angrily chasing him down and shouting something.

"I think it's time to run," Fred grinned, taking one of Scorpius' arms across his shoulders again.

James sprinted off with Lily, Dom and the rest of us following.

As they reached the alchemy lab, the Vizier paused to take in the destruction, stuttering and stammering in fury as he gasped and ordered his men after us.

"What have you done now, Al?" James bellowed.

"Nothing," he tried to reply, only to correct himself under James' hard stare. "He caught me teaching one of the servants how to use magic."

"You idiot!" all six of us yelled at him.

"I know, I know! I probably just messed up the time-space continuum. I should have remembered the butterfly effect, but can we worry about that later only I'd rather not die right now."

The seven of us hurtled through the corridors with no idea where we were going, hoping that we'd either emerge somewhere we knew where we were or somewhere with the possibility of a place to hide. As only our luck would have it, we entered from the other end of the throne room.

The leisurely chatter that had filled the room was broken by the sound of our running feet and shouts as we collided with people, pushing them out of our way. The Pharaoh was on his feet, confusion etched over his features.

"What is going on?" he demanded.

"They wrecked the alchemy lab!" the Vizier exclaimed, running in behind us.

"Time to go!" James shouted, starting to sprint again.

* * *

**A/N: First up, sorry for stopping there. I cut this chapter short because it was going to be a long one again and I wasn't going to have time to finish it, but thought it was important to give you guys something since it was so long ago that I updated. Secondly, I hope you like this chapter and I'd really appreciate some thoughts. And thirdly, just to reiterate what I said earlier, I have no idea what my schedule is going to be like at university and it is unlikely that I'll update in the coming week. Therefore, if you haven't already, I really would recommend adding this story to your alerts. **

**Anyway, thanks so much for reading!**

**Much love, SabreDae**

**xxxxxxxx**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Again, I'm sorry for any delay with this chapter. Being in a new place is really weird. I'm losing my motivation to write, but I'll do my best to keep this story going. If I do disappear for any length of time, don't be afraid to give me a PM and get me moving with this story. I really won't mind. Anyways, I hope you enjoy this chapter!**

* * *

My side was aching from running to the throne room already but I dug my heels in and leapt forwards blindly, following James only to have to scramble to a stop to avoid falling into the crocodile pool.

"Shit!" Al moaned as he too saw what lay in wait.

"Noticed them yet?" Scorpius joked as he and Fred also stopped and looked around at the approaching guards.

"What do we do?" Al asked frantically, looking between each of us.

Reluctantly, I drew my wand, the feel of the hard wood against my fingers a reassurance that we'd escape somehow. A wicked grin lit up the vizier's face.

"Seize them." The calm, calculated tone of voice was all the more chilling.

Wide eyed, I turned to Lily, the pair of us clearly thinking the same thing.

"On the count of three?" she asked, whipping her own wand out.

I nodded and began counting us in. "One. Two. Three." A few paces back was all I needed before pointing my wand at the floor, yelling, "Spongify!" and charging towards the spot on the ground. The breath whooshed out of me as I took to the air, bouncing over the crocodile pool. Gasps filled the room, the Egyptian audience looking on with a mixture of fear and amazement.

"They're flying," breathed the Pharaoh.

Whatever spell James cast, the sound of the words leaving his lips were lost in the chatter around the room that only worsened when he transformed into a falcon and took flight. The platters held by the servants clattered to the floor, spilling food and drink everywhere.

"Gods alive…It's Horus!"

"What? No, it's not!" the vizier shouted, disputing the Pharaoh and pulling guards and servants up from half-bows. "They're just silly children!"

In the confusion, Lily and I landed.

"Don't just stand there!" we called urgently to Dom, Al, Scorpius and Fred who were looking between the Pharaoh and vizier where the power struggle was more of a physical barrier than some psychological battle.

Al and Dom grabbed Scorpius' arms and imitated Lily and I, bouncing over the pool filling the centre of the room, narrowly avoiding a leaping crocodile's snapping jaws. Fred grinned at James before transfiguring himself into an ibis and flapping his newfound wings to gain altitude.

"Thoth!" The Pharaoh exclaimed, pointing at the bird that was Fred.

"For the last time, you great nincompoop, they aren't the gods!"

"That's it! You are no longer my vizier. You are blinded by your own self-importance and you will pay for your arrogance-"

"-You fool!"

"Guards, arrest him!"

"Would you two stop messing around up there," Lily said with a scowl to Fred and James. Looking up, I was just in time to see them finish their game of chicken, the two of them almost hitting the walls as they swerved tightly away from each other.

After floating down to the ground beside us and returning to their human appearances, James muttered, "You're no fun."

"We have more important things to worry about – like how we're going to get back to the machine-"

"Worry not," the Pharaoh suddenly called. "I will have you escorted wherever you wish to go, my lords. Who am I to refuse the wishes of the heavenly gods?"

"Oh, we're not-" I began before being cut off by Albus.

"Rose? What are you doing? Are you mental? Let's cash in on his generous offer!" he hissed at me, exasperation and incredulity filling his eyes, before turning to the Pharaoh and thanking him. "Your offer is most appreciated. We will require seven camels and an escort to take us to the pyramids."

"As you wish," the Pharaoh replied with a bow, the pose looking as odd as a flying cow.

Al grinned at us and held his hands out for high fives. "Come on. Am I awesome? Or am I awesome?"

Groaning, Lily told him, "No, you're worse than the vizier."

"Now you're just being mean."

"Honesty is a virtue," she replied, her voice full of false contrition.

"Sisters, man," Albus said aside to Scorpius. "What are you gonna do?"

Half an hour later, after much shouting on the part of the Pharaoh and scurrying from the servants and slaves to tidy and clean the throne room, we were journeying away, two of the guards leading the way.

The rocking, jolting motion of the camel taking steps and sinking ever so slightly into the sand was slightly sickening, and the sun overhead lit my skin on fire, but we pushed on, only the thought of returning to Hogwarts keeping me from turning around and giving up.

"My back," I groaned, leaning forwards and trying to work out the stiffness that came from an hour of being sat in the same position, sandwiched between the camel's two humps.

"It could be worse," Scorpius mumbled, half-delirious from lack of water. "We could be walking."

I stopped moaning, silently agreeing with Scorpius' thoughts. Walking would be worse, ten times worse. I could just imagine the ache in my feet, the slide of my feet in the sand, the need to remove my shoes as sand fell in and rubbed against my knee high socks, irritating the soles of my feet. Even just picturing it, my feet began to itch.

My frustration only grew, as despite the fact that the pyramids were insight, they never seemed to get any closer.

Finally, though, after what must have been three to four hours of riding, we stopped before the Great Pyramid. Without speaking, the guards dismounted, bowed and held the reins of our camels whilst we struggled to get our feet on the ground. As a group we set off towards the pyramid entrance, the guards staying behind, still silent.

James just shrugged and carried on after a single backward glance, leading the way forwards. But in the twisting corridors we were soon lost.

"This is worse than the Grand Staircase," Dom finally exclaimed. "At least the stairs eventually swing back to where they started, but this is probably where they caged the Minotaur!"

"The Minotaur was Greek," Scorpius muttered, correcting her.

"Any ideas on which way to go, Rose?" Lily asked hopefully.

I had been busy attempting to study the hieroglyphs on the walls in the light of a torch hanging in a bracket on the wall, but didn't exactly know what a bird meant.

"I think the more apt question, is why doesn't Hogwarts offer a course on hieroglyphics? Total guess work, but since the bird's beak is pointing that way," I answered slowly, pointing off down a corridor to the left of us, "why don't we go that way?"

"You're the boss," Al said, starting in the direction I had pointed.

Somehow, though I really don't know how, we ended up back where it had all started – standing in front of the machine.

"_Let's do the time warp again!" _Scorpius sang, laughing.

"You've had _way_ too much sun exposure, mate," Al remarked with one eyebrow raised to question his mental stability.

"Now this time, think of Hogwarts, and only Hogwarts," James cautioned, seeming to stare at me in particular.

We nodded dutifully and took our places, each touching the machine with a single hand.

Instinctively, knowing the feelings that were going to come, I closed my eyes and held them tight.

"Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hogwarts," I chanted in my head.

A slight spinning sensation surrounded me, a compression of air pressing against my body, forcing me closer to the machine. The sound of screaming filled the air, but I couldn't tell if it was me making the noise or one of the others. In the pit of my stomach I felt a lurch almost like driving over a hill and having your stomach drop on the other side.

Incrementally, the spinning slowed and the screaming sound reduced to nothing. Almost fearfully, I opened my eyes before the biggest sense of relief filled me.

Already I could feel the chill of the castle seeping into my bones, but it was a nice feeling. It was home. The grey stone walls no longer looked dreary, but perhaps more full of life than I'd ever seen them, one particular spot in the wall seeming to smile at me.

"We made it," Fred sighed, sinking to the floor.

"Thank Merlin that's over," Dom added.

But no sooner had the words left her mouth then Professor Cackling entered the room.

"There you all are! We've had search parties out for hours! What's happened to your robes?!" I looked down to find I had never put my cloak back on and that my white shirt was stained with sand. "Each of you will lost twenty points for such disgraceful disregard for uniform rules." About to protest, Al and James moved around the machine, letting Professor Cackling see them. "Albus Severus Potter, James Sirius Potter, I should have known. My office now!"

"But-but," Al sputtered.

"Now!" Professor Cackling said again, his voice becoming harsher.

Miserably, Al and James left the room, dragging their feet and quietly arguing and blaming each other.

Looking on with some humour, Lily said, "Guess things will never change around here."

"There you are!" Hugo exclaimed, appearing in the doorway seemingly from nowhere. "What's that box you're all standing around?" Without waiting for an answer, he moved closer to inspect it, placing his hands on the machine. "Hey, Rose, you'll never guess what we did in History of Magic today-"

"-NO!" we all shouted, but it was too late.

* * *

**A/N: So this was just a short chapter, really, but I promise to try to make the next one longer. I'd love some thoughts on this chapter, so leave a review if you've got time. Thanks to everyone who has reviewed/added this story to alerts and/or favourites. **

**Thanks also for reading! Much love, SabreDae**

**xxxxxxx**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: I probably should have said this last chapter, but it only occurred to me now. Not everyone's an ancient history nerd like me, so I thought I'd quickly explain something from the last chapter in case you didn't understand or it wasn't very clear. The reason that Pharaoh Khafne, an actual pharaoh of Ancient Egypt by the way, called James and Fred gods is because of the birds they transfigured themselves into. James transfigured himself into a falcon/hawk depending on which word you want to use and the hawk was associated with the Egyptian god Horus, who was often painted with the head of a falcon. Similarly, Fred transfigured himself into an Ibis, which was the bird used in conjunction with Thoth, the god of knowledge. Anyways, if you have any questions related to any of the chapters, I'm happy to answer them. I hope you enjoy this chapter!**

* * *

"Hugo!" Dominique growled.

"What? Why's everyone so annoyed with me?"

"You just transported us to God knows where, that's why!"

Hugo stared blankly at our cousin for a few seconds before bursting out laughing. "Yeah, good one. I'm not as gullible as you all seem to think and I certainly won't be falling for that. Transported in time," he scoffed, turning around and then yelling out as he noticed the dark forest surrounding us. "Where are the castle walls?"

"Believe us now?"

"Where are we?" Hugo asked, ignoring Dom's unnecessary question in fear.

"You're the one who brought us here," Lily said gently. "You tell us. What were you thinking about, Hugh?"

He gulped and looked at each of us guiltily. "Medieval witch trials," he admitted quietly.

"Great, that sounds like such a fun experience," Dom muttered sarcastically, shutting up as Lily fixed her with a glare. No-one ever managed to make fun of Hugo if Lily was around. She was fiercely protective of her best friend. Even I couldn't get away with a snide remark without retribution.

"What do we do now?" Scorpius asked, turning to me and expecting an answer.

I shrugged, unsure. If we went in search of people, we would probably end up getting into more trouble, but at the same time Hugo was already wandering away from the time machine, desperate to explore the strange land we had found ourselves in.

"Hugo! Come back!" I called, but he didn't hear me and just kept on walking, hands thrust deep into his trouser pockets and his jumper sleeves rolled up past his elbows.

Wordlessly, Scorpius and Fred set off, Scorpius still limping and gripping Fred's shoulder.

"Best get after him before he gets himself into more trouble than he can handle," Fred said over his shoulder, taking point. Dom sighed and folder her arms, reluctantly following as Lily jogged ahead to try and reach Hugh.

"Here we go again," I mumbled to myself, unable to escape the feeling that we were just walking into a trap.

As we walked through the forest, I couldn't help expecting Robin Hood to leap out from behind a tree or something and demand a payment for crossing through Sherwood Forest. Of course, I had no idea if we were even _in _Sherwood Forest, let alone if Robin Hood had actually existed. Walking alongside Scorpius I could, however, hear him humming the theme tune to the BBC drama, Robin Hood and was comforted by the fact that he apparently was thinking the exact same things as me.

"How's that leg?" I asked, trying to distract myself from the feeling of claustrophobia as the trees grew closer together and pressed in on us.

"Hurts like a mother," Scorpius muttered, gritting his teeth as he thought about the agony. "But I'll live; it's not like its broken or anything."

From up ahead, where Hugo and Lily had raced off, the rest of us walking slowly with Scorpius at the quickest speed he could manage; came the sound of something large crashing.

"Uh…guys!" Hugo shouted.

"I'll be right back," I promised, sprinting after my brother around the curving road we had been following. "What have you done now, Hugo?" Already, I was picturing awful things. Hugo hanging from a tree, entangled in a net. Hugo run through with a sword. Lily lying unconscious on the forest floor. You name the scenario and I guarantee you, it ran through my head.

I couldn't help freezing and gasping as I caught up to my brother only to find him and Lily at sword point, an overturned carriage lying off to the side, men on horses surrounding them and their wands lying on the ground at their feet.

Oddly the circumstances reminded me of the time Albus found himself locked in the grip of one of Hogwarts' suits of armour, the metal man twisting his head and nearly snapping his neck. That hadn't been amusing and Hugo's situation wasn't either.

"Step away from my brother," I said, my voice filled with steel.

"How dare you, a lowly peasant woman, seek to command me?" the man levelling a sword at Hugo's throat replied, his voice booming and echoing off the trees.

"My lord, shall I punish her?" one of the men asked, though it was hard to tell if those were his exact words as the visor of his helmet muffled his voice.

"Perhaps you didn't hear me. I _said_ release him."

The man's eyes widened in disbelief, but he didn't lower his weapon or move away from Hugo. As the tip of the sword nicked Hugo's neck he desperately called, "Rose, do something!"

Reluctantly, my mind going over what had happened in Egypt, I drew my wand and aimed it towards the man who was clearly in charge. Before I had a chance to utter a spell, a beam of flight flew over my shoulder and knocked one of the men from his horse.

"Witchcraft!" the leader declared, pointing at me in a mixture of fear and anger.

Without needing to be told, the men surrounded me, confiscated my wand and tied my hands behind my back. As I was carted away with Hugo and Lily, the three of us each seated in front of a soldier on a horse, I saw Fred peep out from behind a tree and look at me apologetically, mouthing something though I couldn't tell what.

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**A/N: I would like to apologise again for my eclectic updating. I'll try my best to get it to something more regular folks. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please let me know what you guys thought!**

**Thanks for reading! Much love, SabreDae**

**xxxxxxxxxx  
**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Hope you like it!**

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I came to as someone threw a pail of water at my face and found myself having to fight the disorientation as I tried to open my eyes.

"Come on, time for sleepin's over. Don't wanna be 'ere for a 'undred years."

My head ached and I had no idea why. I couldn't remember anything after explaining the time machine to Hugo. The fact that my hands were tied behind my back with great big, iron manacles was very confusing, but even without opening my eyes, I could tell from the jostling movement beneath me that I was travelling in the back of some kind of cart or carriage, the whole structure jumping at every lump and bump in the road.

I groaned as we went over a particularly large bump and I bashed my already pounding head against one side of the cart, the sound barely audible over the noise of the wheels and the horses' hooves clopping on compacted earth.

"Rose?" Hugo asked anxiously.

I opened my eyes properly, trying to ignore how much worse the sudden influx of light made my head feel, and take in the view of the surrounding forest and Hugo looming over me.

"What happened?" I croaked, my throat parched.

"You don't remember?" Lily asked incredulously. "Oh, you were awesome, Rose. Like, seriously, on a whole other level."

"Yeah, the way you swept your foot up and just took out one of the guards with a jab in the neck," Hugo agreed. "And he just crumpled to the ground. I didn't know you knew martial arts, Rose."

"I did what?"

I frowned. I _didn't _know martial arts. The only time I'd ever seen it, excluding brief glimpses of Power Rangers when we visited our Muggle grandparents and found them flipping through channels on their television, was when Albus and Scorpius decided it was a good idea to challenge Brett Anders, a Muggle taekwondo champion to a fight. The black eye Scorpius had sported for a week had not been his most attractive feature. But watching Albus trying to walk had entertained me for quite some time afterwards.

"You just went crazy," Hugo enthused.

"Yes, but what _exactly_ happened?" I asked, turning to Lily in the hopes of a more coherent answer.

"Well, they'd just confiscated your wand and tied us up, loading us onto their horses and rode off when you started to look like you were getting an idea. We rode for – well I don't know how far or how long – but eventually we reached a village, where they stopped and got another cart and replaced our rope ties with these," she said, indicating the heavy, iron manacles around her wrists. They'd just thrown us in the back when you made your move, standing and kicking out at each of the men in turn. Hugo and I tried to help, but we were overpowered. It took four of them to finally contain you, and even then they had to pretty much throw a rock at your head…"

I turned to look briefly at our captives, easily spotting the beginnings of bruises forming on their necks, arms and faces.

Normally I would have felt guilty. But instead I found myself feeling annoyed that I hadn't managed any kind of permanent damage or even a few broken bones. The thought surprised me. Usually I was more of a pacifist, unwilling to even watch Al, Fred or James in a fight, let alone egg one of them on.

"Do you know where they're taking us?" I murmured, trying to keep my voice low enough so that the men riding on either side of the cart wouldn't overhear.

Lily shrugged.

"Haven't got a dicky-bird," Hugo replied.

I resisted the urge to mutter something sarcastic and instead focused on trying to find some way out of our predicament. I'm ashamed to say I came up with nothing. Hugo and Lily threw in suggestions, but they were either plain ridiculous or useless because we couldn't break out of the manacles without our wands.

"Where's James when you need him?" I exclaimed in frustration. I could think of countless times James had escaped a seemingly escapeless situation. He was better than Houdini, for Merlin's sake! But the one time I needed him, he wasn't there.

I couldn't help gulping as the cart rolled to a stop and the lord walked around, his hand already wrapped around the pommel of his sword, pulling it a couple of inches free from the scabbard hanging off his waist.

"Any funny business and Gerard will run her through," he announced, nodding at the man who was on horseback behind Lily at one side of the cart, his sword drawn and aimed for her lower back. "Now, down you get."

I nodded and slowly stood, keeping my movements measured and even. In no time at all I had been lifted down from the cart, and Hugo and Lily were stood at my side, looking just as confused and nervous as I felt on the inside.

"You first," the lord instructed me, gesturing with his free arm to walk.

Uncertainly, I started forwards; glancing back at Hugo and Lily to give them what I hoped was a reassuring look. I had no idea where I was meant to be going, relying only on the hope that if I went in the wrong direction, the lord and his men would stop me before I walked into a bog or something.

I didn't know what I had been expecting, but it certainly wasn't for me to walk into a village to find a crowd had already gathered and were chanting for my death.

"Merlin's pants," Hugo murmured, taken aback by the people apparently amassed for my witch trial.

Now that I could hear the chants, I didn't know how it hadn't occurred to me before that a witch trial was what was in store for me.

"Burn 'er at the stake!" a particularly loud peasant farmer with a pitchfork shouted.

"No, drown 'er!" a woman argued, shaking a rolling pin in the air and glaring vehemently at me.

I shrank back in surprise, backing into the lord who grinned savagely and forcefully took me by the upper arm, his thumb and fingers digging into my skin and muscle painfully.

"So, which will it be, Witch?" the lord asked, enjoying himself far too much. "Hmm? Dying by the flame or by the water? Either one will be fatal for you."

If I'd had a choice, I'd have said neither, but when I didn't reply, the lord simply pushed through the peasantry and dragged me with him. I hoped it wasn't the stake he was taking me to. I knew the theory behind performing a flame freezing charm from learning about Wendelin the Weird the previous year, but having never actually cast the spell I wasn't eager for the first time I tried to be in such a life or death situation. But holding my breath for minutes at a time seemed just as daunting and unachievable.

Hugo and Lily were being hauled after me, each of them contained in the arms of a burly man serving the lord, and they continued to struggle despite knowing with finality that it was completely pointless.

My sullied school shirt tore as I tripped and fell over a root poking out of the earth whilst the lord carried on forwards, maintaining his vice-like grip on my arm. All around us surged the village people, still chanting for my death.

I looked around, desperately searching for a way out. But instead, I all I did was cause myself to panic more as I caught sight of the lake we were heading towards, the dunking chair used for witch-dunking already pulled to the shore. My heart hammered and I stumbled, finally trying to fight off the lord's hand and run away. He chuckled sadistically to himself and I had to fight off the screams building in my chest.

As we neared the lake, two of the lord's loyal men came forwards and replaced his hold, one of them on either side to escort me to the dunking chair.

"Rose!" Hugo bellowed, lunging forwards only to be pulled back again by the man guarding him.

My arms were tied to the chair arms and then someone winched the chair up. I didn't see who. I'd had my eyes closed ever since Hugo's shout.

I didn't know what to do. I didn't know any spells that would help me breathe underwater, I didn't have gillyweed. Even if I had known some useful snippet of information, I would have been too panicked to use it. Instead, I waited, waited for the chair to be lowered into the water.

When the water hit, it didn't just splash me; it literally swallowed me, sucking me down to the depths of the lake. I could feel it pulling at my hair and clothes like invisible hands were grasping them and pulling in different directions. The overwhelming feeling was the cold. My lips were pursued and clamped shut but I swear I could still feel the cold sensation in the inside of my mouth.

In a rush, the chair was raised from the lake basin so I dangled over the surface in the air. The cold autumn chill seeped into my chilled bones as my hair hung over my face, dripping constant drops into my lap. I drank in as much air as I could, knowing that it wouldn't be long before I was thrust down into the water again.

"This witch is found guilty of sorcery," the lord announced, beginning to rattle off a list of crimes that included the stunning spell Fred had actually cast. "Her companions will be tried next once the air leaves her body for the last time."

The crowd jeered.

And then the chair was lowered slowly back into the water.

The water lapped over my feet first, washing over and off my toes, sloshing about in my shoes.

As the water folded over my head, sealing me off from the upper world, I heard someone call out my name but dismissed it because I thought it was just Hugo or Lily.

I didn't know how long I was under. All I knew was that my lungs were burning and every thought in my head was screaming for me to open my mouth. I began to feel things on my arms and legs, though I couldn't be sure if it was grindylows or weeds, or even just my imagine being overactive.

By the time I was choking on nothing, as I restrained the overpowering urge to breathe in, I knew it wasn't just my imagination. I could definitely feel hands or fingers of some description on my arm and there was something that was poking my face. I kept my eyes closed out of fear; sure that the lake would be so black that there would be nothing to see anyway.

Finally, when I felt hands on either side of my face and I could take it no longer, I opened my eyes, my heart stopping and my mouth opening as I caught sight of Scorpius, his face green in the light emanating from his wand tip. Lake water surged into my mouth before I could react and my eyes bulged as I struggled vainly for air.

The next thing I knew I was lying on the ground, Scorpius hovering over me as I retched and choked, spitting out water. Hugo, Fred, Lily and Dom stood in a circle around me, looking down anxiously.

"What happened?" I rasped, my throat raw from the coughing fit.

"Well, I think I saved the day really," Fred said frankly, looking at each of the others as though he was asking if they were going to challenge him on the statement.

"I think perhaps you should give Scorpius his fair share of the credit," Dom muttered with a roll of her eyes.

Scorpius blushed as I turned to look at him, ducked his head and pulled on my arms, tugging me to my feet. I groaned at the sudden vertigo and fell into Scorpius, my head falling to rest under his chin.

"Come on," he mumbled. "We need to go, get to safety before that douche comes back with reinforcements."

Wearily I began to move my feet, Scorpius keeping an arm around me to stop me falling down again.

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**A/N: It could have gone on longer to explain how Rose was saved, but I don't have much more time to write and I needed to give you guys something. The next chapter will therefore explain what Fred, Dom and Scorpius did – and I'm considering switching briefly to someone else's perspective. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and I'd love to know what you thought. I'd also like your opinion on whether you would be okay with a quick POV switch. So leave a review to let me know if you've got time.**

**Thanks for reading! Much love, SabreDae**

**xxxxxxxx**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Hey everybody! I apologise for dropping off the face of the earth. New job, university assignments and tests – everything was just on top of me for a while. I'm a little more organised now though so I've managed to find some time to write this chapter and upload it. I really hope you'll enjoy it. (Also, just going to put this out there: 1 month till Christmas!)**

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As we walked and I became more alert, I couldn't help noticed the quiver of arrows slung over Fred's back and the bow he was clutching in one of his hands. Frowning, I wondered why nobody else seemed to find it odd. Even Hugo and Lily hadn't commented on it.

As we paused by a stream to catch our breath and satiate our thirst, I found myself stood beside my cousin, currently the eldest in the group, and decided to ask him where he had procured the weapon from.

"This?" Fred asked, lifting his bow up and allowing me to see it more clearly. "It was a gift," he shrugged.

"A gift from who? You don't even know how to use a bow."

"A gift from Robin Hood, of course," he answered, adjusting the leather strap that held the quiver of arrows on his back.

"Robin Hood?" I asked sceptically. "Really? You honestly expect me to believe that. Tell me, who are you going to meet next, the Sheriff of Nottingham?"

"Well, we did promise to help him and his Merry Men break into Nottingham Castle if he helped us get you back. He seemed interested in using magic, who knows what'll happen?" Fred said, musing to himself about getting lucky and finding the Sheriff's secret hoard of gold.

Shaking my head at his penchant for sarcasm, I wandered back towards Scorpius. The corners of his lips upturned as I approached and he muttered, "Hey."

"Hey," I replied, feeling just as awkward around him as he apparently felt around me. The memory of his lips touching mine was still being processed but I couldn't ignore it. "I…er…just wanted to say thanks for…you know…"

"No problem," he replied, interrupting me and saving me from the embarrassment of having to say the kiss of life.

We stood in silence until, probably not able to bear the tension any longer, Scorpius began humming something.

Dom smirked as the sound carried to her, and beckoned me over.

"Yeah?" I asked.

"How are you holding up?"

"I'm okay, I guess," I mumbled, glancing back again at Scorpius only to momentarily lock eyes with him and look away again with flushed cheeks. "I thought we were just stopping for water though."

"Didn't Fred say?" Dom asked, looking at me in confusion.

"Say what?"

"This is the arranged meeting point. We're still here because we're waiting-"

"-Waiting for what?"

"Me," someone announced before jumping down from a tree branch and landing right in front of me.

Before I could stop it, a screech of surprise erupted from my throat, making the guy wince and cringe.

"Rose," Fred called, still holding his hands over his ears lest I started screaming again, "chill out."

I shot him a withering glance. He knew I scared easily. It didn't take much to make me jump, but whilst that was the case I also calmed down quicker than was probably normal. "Who the hell are you?" I demanded, instinctively taking a step back. I had too many brushes with death in the past two days to not be wary of the stranger in our midst.

The stranger cocked his head and gave me a confused glance, looking uncertainly over at Dom who smiled, clearly enjoying herself.

"Why, I'm Robin Hood, of course!"

"You're who?" I asked in shock, my eyebrows practically leaping off my face and my eyes bulging as I stared at his face. It was odd to look at him whilst he wore no hood. Every time I'd pictured Robin Hood before, I'd never even imagined what his face would look, what colour hair he'd have, but hid all that with the green hooded cape he was always described and seen wearing.

"Robin Hood," he repeated. "You have heard of me, haven't you?"

Getting over how astonished I was, I replied, "Of course I have! I've read all about you! I've seen all the films and TV shows!"

"Films? TV shows?"

"Never mind about those," I continued, beginning to bombard him with questions about Much, Allan A Dale, Little John, Will Scarlet and the Crusades.

"Calm down, Rose," Fred scoffed, handing his bow and arrows to Robin. "Robin Hood doesn't want schoolgirls fawning over him. Besides, we need to get to the camp and make plans." Without another word, Fred set off without glancing over his shoulder to check we were even following.

Robin Hood didn't even pause before slinging his quiver over his head to sit between his shoulders and walking in Fred's footsteps.

I shot Dom a look but she just shrugged and turned on her heel, walking behind Lily and Hugo. I stared after them, still a little dazed by the fact that I'd just met _the _Robin Hood.

"Come on, we should go," Scorpius said, touching my shoulder gently, and completely taking me by surprise. I hadn't even heard him come to stand beside me and couldn't ignore the way my heart was now fluttering, racing in my chest.

"Right, don't want to get left behind," I agreed, my voice slightly strangled by the fear still pumping through my body as I began moving forwards, hyperaware of how close Scorpius was at my side.

We soon caught up to the back of the group and I could hear Fred laughing at something Robin Hood had said, the noise reverberating off the trees surrounding us.

Before I knew it, we had stopped and were grouped around the entrance to some sort of camp, Robin bashing the side of his fist against what turned out to be a hollow tree. In response, a rope was pulled and the forest floor shifted, leaves rising into the air as a hidden door was opened and a host of people rushed out, including a dark, curly-haired woman who instantly threw herself at Robin and kissed him.

Robin Hood's Merry Men sighed like it was a regular occurrence, whilst the rest of us tried to avert our eyes, feeling awkward staring at the couple.

Pulling away, the woman who I presumed to be Maid Marian, then slapped Robin around the face.

"Don't you dare ever do that to me again. Next time, I'm coming with you," she declared, pointing at him whilst he meekly nodded and rubbed his aching cheek.

Apparently happy with their agreement, Marian kissed Robin again before turning to us.

"So these are your new friends?"

Robin nodded an affirmative and began making introductions, only struggling to remember our names when he got to Lily, Hugo and I, the people he had apparently spent less time with. Marian nodded and smiled politely at each of us in turn then introduced herself and the men gathered behind her.

As she presented Will Scarlett to us, Scorpius began singing, quietly murmuring, "Search your heart, search your soul and when you find me there, you'll search no more. Don't tell me it's not worth trying for, you can't tell me it's not worth dying for. You know it's true, everything I do, I do it for you."

As soon as the introductions were over, Robin and his men set about starting a fire and cooking up some dinner whilst Marian drew Fred aside to deal with a cut he had somehow sustained on his upper arm. As soon as his arm was bandaged with a scrap of material, Fred threw himself down in front of the fire and drew a map drawn on a large leaf out of his pocket. Robin gathered next to him, the two of them looking like they were plotting something whilst having an intense discussion.

"Okay," Fred said, drawing his wand from his sleeve and tapping a piece of the leaf.

I sighed and wished I knew what had happened to my wand. I missed the warm, reassuring feel of the wood in my hand.

At the sound of my sigh, Scorpius looked up from where he had been sitting and watching Fred and Robin. "We'll get your wands back," he promised.

I raised my eyebrows and wondered how exactly he had known what I was thinking.

"It's in the treasure room in Nottingham Castle," he continued.

"How do you know that?" I asked, moving to sit beside him.

"Robin's got a spy on the inside," he replied, cocking his head towards Robin Hood.

"My best man," Robin corrected.

"Best _woman, _you mean," Marian said pointedly and Robin shot her a wolfish grin. "And I better be getting back to the castle before anyone suspects anything."

"Bye," everyone called, waving her off as she headed out of the camp.

Scorpius shifted closer to Fred to hear the exact details of the plan. I knew I probably should have followed his actions, but I was still a bit confused as to how I had found myself sitting around Robin Hood's campfire. Finally, I managed to pull myself out of my own thoughts and listen to Fred and Robin explain the plan to us. All that was left to do after that was wait for nightfall.

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**A/N: So, I hope you guys liked this chapter. A lot of the Robin Hood references are things from the BBC tv series, because I seriously loved that, but I did also use the soundtrack of the Kevin Costner film, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves because that is also the best. Anyway, sorry again for taking forever to update. I'd love to know what some of you think!**

**Thanks for reading! Much love, SabreDae**

**xxxxxxxxx**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: Again, apologies for not updating! Enjoy!  
**

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I tried not to curse as I stubbed my toe for the fifth time on the uneven cobbled street as we moved about in total darkness, Nottingham Castle looming so high it blotted out all moonlight. Scorpius caught my arm as I began hobbling.

"I still don't understand why we couldn't have _a_ torch," I hissed, only to be shushed by Fred, who then shoved the whole group behind the side of a house as a guard patrol passed by.

As soon as they were out of sight, Robin and Fred began leading again.

"Okay, we're here," Robin called, somehow still whispering. He pulled an arrow from his quiver and held his hand out to Much, silently requesting the rope he had ordered him to bring along. Tying the end around the arrow, he worked quickly and silently and as soon as he was done, Robin wasted no time in shooting the arrow and rope up over the top of the crenulated wall. Giving it a firm tug to see if it would fall, he nodded once to his men and began scaling the wall.

The rest of us followed, Fred immediately grabbing the rope and beginning to haul himself up, then Little John, Will, Dominique, Alan, Hugo, Lily, Much, Scorpius and then me. Why I had insisted on going last when I was scared of heights, I didn't know. The sounds of a scuffle reached me when I was about halfway up the wall and I had to bite my tongue to refrain from screaming as a body flew past me from the battlements. My arms shook as I risked a glance underneath me at the crumpled, broken body.

"Who was that?" I whispered, praying it hadn't been Hugo.

"One of theirs," Scorpius grunted, forgoing the rope to climb over the ramparts.

Heart racing after stupidly looking down, I closed my eyes a swallowed a mouthful sickeningly warm spittle mixed with the slightest traces of blood after biting my tongue perhaps more forcefully than I intended to. The fear went nowhere and when I opened my eyes it was even worse as the rope swayed in the breeze, the movement much worse given I was the only person left climbing.

"Come on, Rose," Hugo encouraged, leaning over the crenulations to look at me.

I nodded and shimmied a hand further up the rope. Incrementally, I made my way up until there was no more rope and I had to let go in order the take hole of the stonework and climb through the battlements. But I froze. I'd been holding onto the rope so long that I didn't feel I could let go.

I swallowed again, trying to get rid of the scream building in my chest.

Before I could move, someone wrapped their hands around my forearms and helped me over. Smiling gratefully, I looked up to find Scorpius' eyes staring into mine.

"Thanks," I murmured, looking down at where his hands were still gripping my arms. As if suddenly noticing it himself, Scorpius dropped his hands and shoved them into his pockets before walking away.

From the side, Marian gave me what could only be described as a knowing smile and went to give Robin the key to the Sheriff's personal rooms where she believed our wands would be. She'd apparently checked the treasure room herself earlier, but not encountered them. That much I gathered from their hurried, hushed conversation, though it was obvious we weren't meant to be listening to their conversation or watching them, as Much studiously turned around and whistled a quiet tune, his hands on his hips.

"Okay?" Dom asked, smiling excitedly at me as she picked up an axe.

"Yeah," I replied breezily, accepting the mace she grabbed from the floor and handed to me. I grunted and dropped it the instant she let go, unprepared for its hefty weight. "Merlin, that's heavy!"

Dom smirked and whirled her axe against an imaginary foe.

"Just don't hit me," I warned, picking up the mace and testing its weight again. I wasn't sure what good it do me if I could barely carry it, but kept it anyway, feeling safer knowing I had a weapon.

"As if I would," Dom said, mocking me with a fake aghast expression. I still skipped backwards when she swung the axe in my direction.

"You're worse than Fred," I muttered, glancing over at where Fred was brandishing the sword he had acquired from somewhere and posing like he was in a magazine shoot.

Dom gave me a cat-like grin before going to 'take on' Fred. Finally, before they could make any noise, Robin ordered us on.

"I'm confused," I muttered. "I thought Marian said our wands were in the treasure room."

"They were," she replied, though I'd had no idea she was walking right behind me. "But the Sheriff is nothing but careful. He's constantly moving things around, changing the routes his men take when transporting goods to and from the castle and the like. He's long suspected that there is a spy within his walls; he just doesn't realise that he brought me inside his walls himself."

When no further explanation came, Much needlessly added, "Marian has been placed under house arrest in the castle by the Sheriff."

"And he'll live to regret that decision," Marian said through gritted teeth. I didn't need to look back to know that Robin had stopped her and had taken her hand, the other of his own hands cupping her cheek in sympathy.

"You should get back. We don't want to blow your cover," he told her quietly. The rest of us milled about waiting for Robin to get back to leading us. Without him, we were like headless chickens. After saying goodbye, Robin wordlessly moved ahead, walking at the front of the group and taking out any guards in the way with ease.

Every time, he took out a guard, someone changed into their armour.

"Rose, look," Hugo guffawed, tapping my arm insistently. I turned to find him wearing one of the fallen guards' helmets, though it was much too big, covering his eyes and wobbling every time he moved.

"Hugh, be quiet," I reminded him in a whisper.

He rolled his eyes but removed the helmet and instead placing it on Lily's head, snorting at how ridiculous she looked. I shook my head at the pair of them, forgetting momentarily that they were still only twelve.

Eventually we had moved so far through the castle that we were all clad in armour, and I was sure that Hugo and Lily weren't the only ones who looked absurd in such poor-fitting armour. At the next intersection, Robin sent Little John, Will, Alan and Much off to the treasure room to collect funds for the poor, whilst he carried on with us to the Sheriff's personal quarters to find our wands.

It was all going perfectly until Hugo's massive helmet fell off. Then all hell broke loose.

At the clang of Hugh's helmet landing on the stone floor, the Sheriff jerked awake, yelling at the sight of Robin Hood. Before anybody could stop him, the Sheriff was off, running out of the room and down the corridor.

"Guards! Guards! Robin Hood! Robin Hood is in my castle! Guards!"

Robin rushed after him, leaving the rest of us in the Sheriff's quarters with no idea where our wands would be.

"Now what?" Dom asked, flinging her axe down on the Sheriff's empty bed.

"I know what to do," Fred said. "I'm in my element. We ransack!" With no further words, he used his sword to slash the curtains on the Sheriff's four poster bed then moved onto pulling open all the drawers in the bedside chest. Hugo dived onto the chest at the foot of the bed, pulling out and throwing its contents across the room. That combined with Lily stabbing the pillows, left the room strewed with pillows, fabric and feathers and us no closer to finding our wands.

"They're not here," Lily declared, throwing her hands in up in frustration.

"If I was a wand, where would I be?" Hugo mused, tapping his chin as he thought.

"Or better yet, if you were the Sheriff, where would you hide stuff?" Fred asked, before dramatically dropping to his knees and sliding under the bed. A moment later he reappeared. "Damn! Not under the bed…but how about under the floorboards!"

With a quick spell, he'd removed a few of the floorboards, revealing a hoard containing numerous gold, bejewelled rings and what looked like a very old map.

"We're close," Fred muttered. "I can feel it."

Dom and Scorpius turned and pulled up some different boards, revealing yet another hoard of treasure, but still no wands. On and on, Fred, Dom and Scorpius continued, until finally, Fred let out a triumphant yell, holding three wands aloft. I could have kissed him. Dashing over, I took my wand and ran my fingers over it, checking for damage whilst savouring the feel of holding it in my hand again.

"Can we go now?" Hugo asked, looking around the room that closely resembled a bombsite. "I've got a Potions essay due in tomorrow."

I smothered a laugh and wrapped an arm around his shoulders.

"Yeah, Hugh, we can go now."

* * *

**A/N: So I hope you liked this chapter. I originally intended to make it longer, but I'm suffering with a bit of a headache at the moment. So this is the last in the Middle Ages with Robin Hood and the gang, but I can promise you that the next chapter will be very exciting, though I won't say where Rose and co are going. If you've got time, I'd really appreciate some thoughts on the chapter. I hope there are no typos in this, but I haven't checked very thoroughly since it's been so long since I gave you guys a chapter and I feel guilty about that. If there any typos/mistakes that you notice, please tell me ASAP because it's virtually no effort to edit them now, but the longer it get's left the harder it gets seeing as you can only have so many documents in the manager and for a limited amount of time.  
**

**Anyway thanks for reading! Much love, SabreDae**

**xxxxxxxx**


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: Sorry! I'm just going to let you read.**

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"Thank Merlin," I exclaimed as the portrait of the Fat Lady swung closed behind us.

"I know," Hugh grinned. "For a second there I really thought Filch was going to catch us. I don't think I've ever been more grateful to see these threadbare chairs." Lily smiled at Hugh and pulled him down onto the sofa with her.

"It was definitely an adventure," Lily murmured, with her head resting back against the top of the sofa, her eyes already falling closed. "Hopefully, it'll be the only one for a long time."

"Are you kidding?!"

"Fred," we all groaned.

"You can't seriously want to do that again?"

"Yeah," he replied, looking at me like I was crazy. "That was the most fun I've had in years. All this settling down for exams has been a right bore. I've missed the excitement of a spot of danger."

"I'm beginning to think you're brains have been addled," I muttered. I'd never been able to understand some of my cousins' penchant for mischief. And it wasn't because I was Hermione Grainger's daughter, no matter how often everybody told me that. "You're just not normal."

"Not normal? You can't tell me you didn't find that a little bit fun?" Fred asked in disbelief, looking around at everyone else for support.

"I nearly drowned, Fred! Of course it wasn't fun!" I retorted, my voice rising in anger.

"You're finally back then," said Albus, appearing at the bottom of the boy's dormitory stairs with apparently no idea that he had walked into the middle of an argument. "You've been gone for hours. You're lucky James and I were here to cover for you guys."

Before I could turn and spit out the words, "Lucky isn't exactly the word I'd choose," Scorpius had elbowed me. Turning to glare at him instead, I lost my chance to continue the argument.

"Where'd you guys go this time then?"

"It was great, Al," Fred enthused. "We were with Robin Hood – _the Robin Hood_ – and, oh you should have seen me, I was brilliant. I masterminded our entire battle strategy, and Robin did say I'd have been an asset in Acre, wherever that is. I swear I'd have been the best general an army could have!"

I rolled my eyes but once again Scorpius prevented me from saying anything.

"Maybe you should go to bed, Rose, you look really tired," he said, already leading me to the girls' dormitory staircase with a hand on the small of my back.

My eyelids did feel heavy and all I wanted was to lie down on my four poster bed and forget about the aches in my muscles and try to rid myself of the feeling of water surrounding me; but someone had to be the adult and straighten Fred out because we sure as hell were _not _using that stupid time machine again.

"I'm fine-" I started to argue, only to have Albus interrupt.

"You do look a bit pale, Rose. And are those bags under your eyes?"

I was so exhausted I couldn't even tell if Al was joking when he said I had bags. It wouldn't have surprised me if I did.

"Come on, let's go to bed," Dom said, taking my wrist in her hand and towing me up the stairs, paying no heed to my protests. After sitting me on my bed, my elder cousin turned to search my trunk for some pyjamas. She needn't have bothered; I was spread-eagled asleep within seconds.

I was slow waking up the next morning, stuck in a dream where someone far away kept shouting my name but all I could see was black.

"Rose!" the yell was louder this time, and my heart jolted as I awoke, clawing at my face where I felt a heavy weight and blackness still covering my eyes. In response, a yowl of indignation filled my ears as Poppy, Niamh's cat, leapt off me but not before delivering a scratch to my cheek.

I groaned, clapping a hand to the injury, as I swung my legs out of the bed, finding that despite there being no lingering ache in my muscles; all of my limbs were like dead weights.

"Rose? Are you awake?" the voice from my dream called again.

"Yes," I sighed, realising it had been Scorpius.

"Rose?"

"Yes!" I shouted.

"Good, because I've been stood out here shouting for you for at least fifteen minutes now. I hate these stupid enchantments that keep boys out of the girls' dorm. I could have been and had lunch by now if I'd been able to get in and chuck a bucket of water over you."

I shivered at the thought of being drenched in water again, blinking against the sudden encroaching of claustrophia and feeling of waterweeds wrapping around my feet and flashing images of murky, dirt filled lake water in front of my eyes.

"Lunch?" I forced myself to ask, pushing the word past my quaking lips.

If Scorpius heard the tremble in my voice, he didn't question it. "Yes, lunch."

"What time is it?" I asked, pushing myself off the bed and almost tripping over the pyjamas Dom had left on the floor for me.

There was a pause as Scorpius checked his watch before replying, "Almost two o'clock."

Forgetting about changing my clothes, I wrenched open the door and hurried down the dormitory stairs to where Scorpius was waiting at the bottom. "You let me sleep till two o'clock in the afternoon?!" It was no wonder that I felt sluggish. I'd slept for over fifteen hours.

"Rose, it's Saturday," Scorpius said without batting an eye.

"Oh."

"Yep," he muttered, rocking on the balls of his feet.

"Well, I'm going to to…you know…go and get changed."

"Right," he nodded, spinning around. "I'll wait for you down here in the Common Room."

With lunch over, I was forced to sneak some food from Albus' hidden stash of pumpkin pasties and cauldron cakes before Scorpius and I headed out into the school grounds to watch the end of the Gryffindor team's quidditch practise.

They were just rounding up when we entered the stadium, finishing up with some keeping practise for Tyler. Whilst Albus, Penny and Laurence tossed the quaffle towards the goals, James flew idly round until he spotted us in the stands and hovered in the air to talk to us.

"Have you seen Fred?"

I frowned, searching the pitch. When he'd not been in the air on his broom, I'd assumed he was locking away the bludgers with his fellow beater, but he was nowhere to be seen.

"He didn't turn up to practise today. I'm not even sure he came to bed last night – I didn't hear him come in and his bed was empty when I left the dormitory this morning."

"Maybe he's just doing homework in the library," I suggested, though even I didn't believe that. In my head I was already trying to convince myself that Fred hadn't used the time machine again.

"Really? You don't think he-"

"No," I said, cutting James off. "He wouldn't be _that _stupid."

"Yeah," James agreed slowly. "You're probably right. He's got to be behind on homework after all this madness recently."

"So we all agree then? Fred used the time machine?" Scorpius asked, looking at James and me with one eyebrow raised.

"Obviously," I said with a sigh. "Question is what are we going to do about it?"

"Meet you in the Common Room?" James asked.

I nodded.

"Come on."

I followed Scorpius down the stairs inside the stands, the wind whistling through the hollow structure as James called an end to his team's practise and they flew past the stand on their way to the changing rooms.

Half an hour later, we were all gathered around the time machine again.

"Right, so just to be clear, everybody think about World War One," James instructed.

"We know, James, we've been through this four times already and we all agreed that the First World War was the first place Fred would have thought about going since he's convinced he's some kind of super soldier now," Dom replied, growing impatient.

"Okay, then on the count of three. Three, two, one."

My stomach lurched once again. I still wasn't used to the sensation caused by travelling through time. But I was even more unprepared for the torrential downpour that suddenly dropped on us.

"Yuck," Albus exclaimed, looking down at where his feet were squelching in thick mud.

"We don't have time for this," James muttered. "We need to find, Fred. Let's go."

Grimacing at the mud splattering up my legs as I walked and my sodden, clinging robes, I followed behind James, knowing that the sooner we got a move on and found Fred, the sooner we'd be back in the safety of Hogwarts castle.

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**A/N: I **_**am **_**seriously sorry for not updating in forever. I have my excuses but I really don't think you all need to hear them. I'm not sure how long it will take but I WILL finish this fanfiction. If you're still here reading, then thank you so much. **


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: Another update! I'm hoping to keep to regular updating, it just might not always work for this month because I have all my university exams. I'll probably still be writing (even if it's just for a break from revision) but I don't know how much I'll get done. Regardless, after my exams are done I should have plenty of time to write the story. I hope you guys like this chapter. Again, thanks for sticking with me.**

* * *

Trudging through the mud trenches in our school uniforms, we were completely out of place. Every soldier we passed looked up from whatever they were doing, whether they were writing letters, just chatting, playing a card game, or napping, and gave us an odd look.

"Our presence here better not be written in some history book or put in some museum," I muttered, looking back over my shoulder at one of the soldiers exclaiming in French and furiously scribbling something on the piece of paper he was futilely trying to shield from the deluge. "What did he say, Dom?"

"It sounded like 'The Lord has blessed me! That's it!'"

I was half-tempted to turn around and rip his paper into tiny pieces just in case.

"Maybe he's just writing a poem," Scorpius suggested. "It might not be about us."

Perplexed, I looked sidelong at him, wondering how exactly it was he was managing to read my mind.

"So where do you reckon we'll find Fred?" Al asked James.

"How should I know? I was stuck with you in Professor Longbottom's office whilst this lot had their fun with Fred and Robin Hood. Ask Rose."

"Rose?"

"I honestly don't know. He could be anywhere," I answered.

"Great," Al muttered with a sigh. "Oi! Fred! Where are you, mate?!"

"Shut up, Al!" I hissed, shooting furtive glances at the soldiers sat leaning against the sides of our trench on either side of us. "We don't need _more _attention drawn to us."

"Well how else are we supposed to find him?"

"By using our eyes, _dingus_," James replied mockingly.

As we wandered through the maze of trenches, we scrutinised every man we passed, searching for Fred's carrot-head, his numerous freckles, his lanky frame and his hazel eyes. Although, there was mysteriously no sound of gunfire, the agonised screams of injured and dying soldiers followed us, wherever we went, gradually growing louder until we found ourselves in what could only be the field hospital.

My throat closed up and my nose wrinkled at the sudden, putrid stench of death in the air. Everywhere I looked blood took over the scene, turning my stomach. I wasn't the only one affected. Unfortunately for Lily, she was the only one of us to throw up, violently vomiting her stomach's contents. James rubbed her back in sympathy and, once she was done, hugged his little sister to his body.

"Gross," Dom whispered, looking repulsed both by Lily's gagging and the injuries surrounding us.

I felt Scorpius' hand gripping my wrist tightly. Turning to look, I was met with his white face. He didn't even seem to be aware of his hand's movement. Prying his fingers off me, he just laced them though mine instead, still seeking contact.

"I think we should go back the way we came," Hugo mumbled.

"Good idea," Al croaked, turning and pushing past Scorpius. He'd barely gone two steps before a sudden barrage of gunfire filled the air. The ground shook as some distance away a bomb exploded, more screams joining the cacophony. In the haze of smoke from the bomb the guns and even just from abandoned cigars and cigarettes I gasped.

"What if that was a gas bomb?!"

"Let's go!" James yelled.

We didn't need to be told twice. The noise had shaken Scorpius from his stupor and the seven of us sprinted back the way we had come, heading in the opposite direction to soldiers bearing stretchers with fallen comrades. Nobody paid us any attention this time. We traced our steps back to the time machine, the flood of injured men being taken to the field hospital getting thicker the closer we got to our origin point.

"Did you see the shrapnel sticking out of that guy?" Al asked Scorpius between breaths.

"Unfortunately," Scorpius answered.

"What do you think did it?"

"Grenade? Mine? Merlin knows. Rose is the history boff, not me."

I glared at both of their backs ahead of me, hoping they could feel the burn of my gaze.

My heart stopped when we got to the time machine, finding it riddled with bullets.

"Do you think it'll still work?" Lily asked.

James took one look at her wide eyes, taking in the apparent anxiety in them. "Only one way to find out," he told her, nodding to all of us as he placed his own palm on one side of the machine.

The rest of us followed suit.

"What about Fred?" Dom said.

I cast a desperate glance around for him. _Where are you, Fred?_ But it was already too late, the machine had begun its journey, spinning us and leaving the dreary grey skies and bloodied battlefields of World War One behind.

* * *

"Ouch! Al!" Lily complained.

"That's my hair you're tugging on, Dom," James grunted.

"What the hell happened?" Al groaned. "One second my feet were on solid ground and then it was gone again. I feel like I've been steam-rolled."

I rolled onto my back, finding the cause of our confusion looming above me.

"I'd say we all fell down that hill."

"And you would be right, Rose," someone said. "It was pretty funny actually."

"Fred!" Dom exclaimed. "There you are!"

I gaped, taking in the sight of Fred encased in armour with a plumed helmet atop his head and a sword, upon the pommel of which one of his hands rested, at his hips.

James struggled to his feet, pushing both Al and Lily's legs off of his, and grabbed Fred, shaking his hand and bringing him into a one armed hug.

"We've missed you, Mate. Now, where the heck are we?"

"Germany, I think. It's hard to be sure, it doesn't have the same name in this time," he answered, turning to look at the landscape. I followed his gaze, spotting numerous tents pitched in the distance.

"Please tell me you've not joined one of the Roman Legions?"

Fred just grinned at my resigned tone.

"Well, you've had your fun. Let's go home," Dom said, beginning to trudge up the hill where the time machine still stood.

"No thanks. I want to see if I can get promoted to centurion."

"Fred, do you even know how ridiculous that is?" I asked. "It's not like you go straight from being an ordinary soldier to a centurion. It'd take you your whole life to make centurion and that's assuming you followed the orders of your superiors and weren't beaten to death as a punishment."

"I can do it," he insisted.

Half an hour later we were still no closer to convincing Fred to come home with us. I'd given up on trying, leaving the job mainly to James and Dominique.

"Will you stop being a pillock!" James shouted, growing frustrated with Fred's stubbornness. I rolled my eyes, not bothering to listen to Fred's angry retort.

I sighed and looked wistfully at the time machine.

"_Just follow the beat, the rhythm will lead you right back to me."_

The singing started quietly, but Scorpius soon grew louder. Sitting on the ground, he was probably bored out of his skull.

"_Sometimes it's a game of give and take, it's easy to break but hold on and wait." _

I smiled at his rising voice hitting pitches only girls should really be able to sing.

"_Have a little faith. Ohhh. I will go down to the last round. I'll be your strength to find you when you get lost in the crow-"_

I couldn't hold it in any longer. I burst out laughing, cutting Scorpius off.

"What?" he asked.

"Nothing. You've got the voice of an angel, Scorp," I told him with a grin.

"Thanks," he said slowly as if he didn't quite know if I was being serious. He nodded over at Fred and James arguing. "Are we any closer to going home?"

"About as far away as east is from west," I muttered.

Again James and Dom began bellowing at Fred.

"How do you think your Uncle going to react if you don't come back with us? He's already lost a brother, you think he can stand to lose a son too?"

Fred opened his mouth to reply to James, but Dom beat him to the punch.

"And what about Roxie? You think she won't miss her brother? Because once we're gone, Fred, you'll be stuck here. There's only one time machine and it'll be in Hogwarts."

Whatever Fred was going to say never came out. Instead a trumpet sounded in the distance.

"What was that?" Hugh asked, his interest perking up again. Whilst Scorpius sat and sang, and James and Dom argued with Fred; Lily, Al and Hugo had for the large part been talking to each other, only occasionally trying to help convince Fred to come home with us.

"That was bad news," Fred replied, drawing the sword swinging off the belt at his hips. "Stay here."

"What, so you think you're Achilles or something now, do you?" James asked. "How long have you even been using that thing?"

"They, er, gaveittometoday," Fred mumbled.

"What?" Dom asked, her tone demanding.

"I said they only gave it to me today."

"You'll be dead in seconds. Just come back with us!"

Fred dithered, looking between the campsite teeming with legionnaires exiting tents and heading off to battle and us.

"We're your family, Fred," I said softly. "What's more important? Us or fame?"

We waited in tense silence, worrying that he was actually going to pick becoming a famous centurion over us, until finally he turned his eyes up from the ground and said, "You."

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**A/N: Thanks for reading! Again, hope you enjoyed it. **


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: As usual, hope you enjoy the chapter! This one is a bit later than usual, but it's because it's a lot longer. I originally started this story hoping to have reasonably long chapters and most of them have been under 2000 words. I hope you like that this chapter's a bit longer and don't mind them being back in Hogwarts for a bit. This chapter was inspired by the awesome Forever Siriusly Sirius. **

* * *

Professor Kline shot me a look as I hid a yawn behind my hand for what had to be the thirteenth time in the last five minutes. I was trying my best to concentrate on the diagram of the steps we had to memorise in order to correctly transfigure a dormouse into a tentpeg she was drawing out on the board, but every so often my eyes would slip closed and my head would droop. It was the last lesson of the day and I was fighting a losing battle.

"Miss Weasley, would you kindly focus your attention on the board; not your desk. I fail to see what's so interesting about a piece of furniture."

I jerked upright.

"Gee, Rose, anyone would think you were sleeping," Al tutted, feigning disgust at my behaviour as he looked around at our classmates.

"I certainly hope that is not the case," Professor Kline replied. "Please turn your attention back to board, Class."

Scorpius and Al both sniggered as my cheeks turned beet-red with embarrassment at having been caught dozing and receiving what had to have been my first ever admonishment from a teacher. It was alright for them. We may have been back at Hogwarts for a whole week with no misadventures, but I was still tired out even if they weren't. They weren't being kept awake half the night by nightmares. If I wasn't dreaming of the witch-dunking, then I was dreaming about falling off the walls of Nottingham Castle.

The end of the lesson couldn't come fast enough. When Professor Kline instructed us to close our textbooks, a smile flitted onto my face for the first time all day.

"I expect a roll of parchment on the best method to perfect these steps on my desk at the beginning of the next lesson."

Before she'd even finished speaking, my book, quill and inkpot were all in my bag and I was halfway to the door. I could almost hear Scor's and Al's thoughts following me.

"_Where do you reckon she's off to in such a hurry?"_

"_The library. Isn't it obvious?"_

But I wasn't going to the library. As much as I needed to go to the library to work on the potions essay, Professor Jamieson had set for us earlier in the day, I knew there was no point in even making a start that evening. I'd probably only write a sentence before falling asleep over the books, and getting ink all over my face. I knew from experience. No, I wasn't going to the library; I was going straight back to bed.

As I hurried along, I thought I might have passed Louis who'd called a greeting that I hadn't returned, but I was so tired I was barely keeping track of whereabouts in the castle I was. In fact, I was paying so little attention that I forgot to skip one of the vanishing steps on the fifth floor staircase. I splayed forwards, my bag slipping off my shoulder and falling over the banister down two flights of stairs.

"Shoot!" I muttered after regaining my balance, only to find my leg was well and truly trapped.

I glanced around, looking for someone to help me but, of course, everyone else had headed off to dinner. I was alone.

"Help? Anyone?" I called, my small voice echoing in the empty staircase.

Of course there was no answer. I sighed in frustration and tugged vainly on my leg again.

I peered over the banister at my bag lying on the stone floor. With my wand inside it, I couldn't even use a spell to get myself out. I cursed myself for my stupidity in not returning it to the pocket inside my robes after Professor Kline had told us to put our wands away at the beginning of Transfiguration. That was what the pocket was for after all.

Gritting my teeth, I gripped the banister and tried again to get my leg out but my ankle was trapped like a fly in a spider's web. The more I pulled and twisted on it, the more I began to feel pain flaring in the joint. Forgoing attempting to get myself free for fear that I would just end up breaking my leg, I settled down to wait, trying to lean against the banister and take my weight off my remaining leg. It wouldn't have been so bad had I been descending the stairs not climbing them. Then at least I could have manoeuvred myself to sit down to wait. Instead I was stuck standing, hoping that somebody would finish dinner early and come to my rescue.

I don't know how long I had been waiting but the sudden peal of echoing laughter surprised me. I had been expecting to hear a stampede of footsteps, a clamour of many voices talking over each other – all signs that signalled the end of dinner and the mass of students all leaving and headed back to their Common Rooms – not Peeve's signature laugh. I couldn't see him, but I knew it was him as surely as I knew the sun would be setting any minute.

"Peeves," I called, hoping he hadn't just come to gloat at my predicament. "Peeves please go and get help."

A fading cackle was my only answer. My heart sank. I closed my eyes, accepting the fact that I was probably going to be stuck there a while. My knowledge of the other houses' common rooms was limited but I was pretty sure that even though the entrance to Ravenclaw Tower was on the fifth floor, nobody would be coming up the staircase I found myself stuck on.

A clatter of metal had my eyes open in seconds, peering down the torch-lit staircase.

"Rose?" someone asked.

My head whirled around, searching for the speaker, but I was alone with just the Hogwarts suits of armour for company.

"Rose, I'm down here."

"Scor? Is that you?"

"Yes! I need your help!"

I frowned. _He_ needed _my_ help. _I _needed _his_ help.

"Where are you?" I asked, still not able to see him.

"In this goddamn suit of armour," he replied, lifting a metal-covered arm to wave at me.

"Well how on earth did you get in there?"

"Peeves," Scorpius answered bitterly. "He's still not over the fact that I ruined his water balloons prank. Now are you going to help me out or not?"

"Bit of a problem: My leg's stuck in the step so probably not, no."

Scorpius groaned, the suit creaking with his movements, "Great. Now what do we do?"

"Well where's Al?" I demanded. "I thought you two were meant to be inseparable."

"Probably already up in Gryffindor Tower by now. We're going to be here all night, aren't we?"

"Well…"

"Great," Scorpius muttered, sighing, the sound distorted by the metal helmet over his head.

"Well, it's your fault. If you didn't have this whole feud going on with Peeves we wouldn't be in this situation, would we?"

"Speak for yourself. If Peeves hadn't kidnapped me and locked me in this armour, you'd still be stood here with your foot stuck in the stair and who's to say anyone would have come along and freed you," he countered. "Now, if you'd come down to dinner instead of skipping to the library on the other hand-"

"I _didn't _go to the library! I don't _live _there!" I retorted impatiently. "The only reason I skipped dinner was because I was so exhausted I'd have dropped my head right into a bowl of soup!"

"Well go to bed instead of staying up late doing homework. Getting the odd detention for not handing in work on time isn't going to kill you. I should know. Al and I have had enough, and we're still getting good grades over all."

"For the last time, Scorpius, I have _not _been staying up late working in the library-"

"-I didn't say you'd been working in the library-" he interrupted hotly but I cut him off again.

"-I haven't been staying up late at all. I have been going to bed at the same time as you every night this week, remember?" I said, carrying on my earlier sentence, and trying my best to keep my temper. Anger wasn't going to help us.

"Then why are you falling asleep in lessons?" he asked.

"I'm not falling asleep in lessons. I dozed off for a minute in _one _les-"

"Don't even try and tell me that transfiguration was the first time you fell asleep, Rose," Scorpius laughed. "I saw you in Potions this morning."

"I don't know what you're talking about," I replied, denial colouring my voice, giving me a haughty tone.

"Oh really? So you're telling me, you weren't falling asleep leaning your head on your hand and that you didn't jerk awake when your elbow fell off the table?"

"No, I didn't," I stuttered.

Scorpius chuckled. "Come on, Rose, just tell me what's going on."

"Nothing's going on."

"_Something_ is going on."

"No, it's not. I'm fine," I insisted.

"You're not fine. Have you even looked in the mirror today, Rose?"

"Yes, thank you," I replied curtly. I was well aware that I had circles under my eyes from four sleepless nights, that the stress was bringing me out in pimples and that my hair was even more of a bird's nest than usual.

"You know that's not what I meant. I'm worried about you, Rose," he said seriously.

"And I'm telling you that you don't need to be worrying about me. I'm one hundred per cent fine." There was no way in Hell I was telling anyone about my dreams. I knew they were ridiculous and that Scor and Al would just tell me to get over them.

"Well…if you're sure."

"I am," I assured him. "Now how are we going to get out of here?"

"Merlin knows."

"I don't think even Merlin can help us now."

"You got that right. It's going to be a long night," Scorpius mumbled.

"What time is it anyway?" I asked, slouching back against the banister again.

"I don't know. I can't exactly see my watch," he reminded me. "I _think _it's about eight."

"Great," I sighed.

"Hey, it could be worse."

"How? How could it be worse, Scor?"

"You could be stuck here with Al. You _know _that would be worse." Despite myself I smiled, because he was right. It would be worse if I was stuck with Al. Al would moan the entire time, Al would make one bad joke after another and Al wouldn't even try and keep my spirits up.

"True," I acquiesced. "I think you have the worse end of the stick anyway. You must be freezing in that suit."

"Actually," he replied, shifting slightly in discomfort, "I'm roasting. I'd give anything to just have my foot stuck in the vanishing step."

"Yeah, I think I prefer my own dilemma too," I laughed, glad that even if I had to spend the night sleeping on the staircase, at least I wasn't doing it alone.

"Gee thanks," Scorpius muttered, making me laugh harder.

"Sorry," I gasped, still shaking with mirth.

"You're totally not," he dissented. "But it's okay, I always forgive my friends."

"Thanks, Scor."

"Merlin, you two are such saps," Al groused, leaning against the open door at the top of the staircase. Who knew how long he had been stood there listening to us.

"Al, thank Merlin!" I exclaimed.

"Thank Merlin? I think you should be thanking me," he replied, descending the stairs and helping me to pull my leg free of the step. I rolled my eyes at his over-indulged sense of self-importance. "Accio bag," he said, pointing his wand down at the floor where my bag still lay. I watched as it flew up into the air towards us, and caught it by the strap. "Nice catch, Rosie. Uncle Ron would be proud. But don't let James see you, or he'll have you trying out for the team. You know he's still annoyed about having to take on Eoin-bogeyface-Carrick as Keeper," he told me over his shoulder as he went to rescue Scorpius, opening the suit of armour with a wave of his wand.

"Thanks, mate," Scorpius blew, inhaling fresh air deeply through his mouth. "I thought I was going to suffocate in there."

"No problem."

"How did you find us?" I asked, checking my bag over just to make sure nothing had fallen out. It wouldn't do to lose my textbooks or my wand.

"Simple. When we noticed that neither of you came back to the Common Room, James and I had a little word with Peeves."

"Well thanks."

Al nodded. "Come on, let's get out of here before one of the prefects finds us."

The three of us hurried up the stairs and headed to the Common Room. I'd barely gotten a foot through the portrait hole when Hugh and Lily accosted me.

"Rose, there you are! We really need to talk to you!"

"Can't it wait at least five minutes?" I said exasperatedly. "I've only just come in."

"No!" Hugh replied, his chubby cheeks scrunching in annoyance. "We need to talk to you now!"

"Alright, alright, but at least let me sit down first," I half-begged.

Hugo and Lily followed me over to the sofa, where I pushed James out of the way and collapsed into the cushions face first, lying stretched out with my feet hanging over the end.

"Rose!" Hugo whined.

"Fine," I mumbled, rolling over to face them. "What is it that's so urgent?"

Hugo took a quick look around the room before blurting, "We need to use the time machine."

"What?!" I yelled. Everyone looked up at me. "No," I hissed fiercely. "It's too dangerous."

"But we need to, Rose," Hugh insisted. "It's important.

Beside him, Lily nodded her head fervently, silently backing up my younger brother.

"Why?"

"For our History of Magic essay. Professor Binns wants us to write about Merlin's public and secret lives."

"Then use the library, Hugo. It's what it's there for. The books don't bite, you know, I can attest to that."

Hugo threw his hands up in the air. "Do you think we're stupid?!"

"We've been in the Library, Rose," Lily said, managing to be the only one of the three of us to be keeping her temper. "It was the first thing we did, but the information we want isn't in there. We even checked the restricted section and asked Madam Pince for help."

"Then write about something else. Merlin's the most famous wizard in history – there are tonnes of books about him," I replied, breathing deeply to stay calm. I knew the tiredness was making me more caustic than usual, and neither Hugh nor Lily deserved to be on the receiving end of things. Surely it was a good thing that they were determined to do well in their homework.

"They all say the same thing. We want to know about his relationship with Morgana Le Fay, and all the books talk about are his magical feats."

"Look, you must just be looking in the wrong place. Tomorrow break time I'll meet you in the library and find you a book," I promised, trying to meet them halfway. If losing my break time meant stopping Lily and Hugh using the time machine, it was a sacrifice I was willing to make. "Deal?"

Lily turned to Hugh, her eyebrows raised in question. After a silent conversation had passed between the two of them, Hugo finally sighed and turned back to me. "Deal," he muttered.

"Good, now I'm going to head to bed. I'll see you tomorrow," I told them. "And remember, no more of this time machine nonsense."

Hugo glowered at me and stalked away, passing Scorpius and Al.

"What's the matter with him?" Al asked, looking between Lily and me.

"You tell him," I muttered to Lily, gathering my bag and leaving the Common Room for my dormitory and my bed.

* * *

The next morning I awoke in surprise after having slept the entire night without a single nightmare. Feeling energised for the first time in days, I stretched and got out of bed without having to be dragged by my dorm mates.

"Morning," I greeted Niamh and Eve cheerfully. I dressed in record time and left the dorm with just a, "I'll see you at breakfast," called over my shoulder. I even beat Hugo to breakfast, which almost never happened. He loved his food too much.

I helped myself to a few slices of toast and buttered them before adding a couple of tablespoons of various flavour jams over the top. I didn't have to look to know it was Al who dropped into the seat on my left and immediately grabbed two pancakes and a bottle of maple syrup. He _always _ate pancakes and maple syrup for breakfast when the house-elves put it out. Scorpius, on the other hand, usually just ate cereal, and that morning was no different. He took the space at my other side and picked up a bowl of frosted flakes before pouring far too much milk over them and then sifting sugar on top.

"What homework were we supposed to be doing for Professor Cackling today again?" Al asked through a mouthful of pancakes.

"She wanted us to finish making notes from pages 638-700, didn't she, Rose?"

I nodded, affirming Scorpius' answer.

"Sugar, I forgot." There was a pause before Al said, "Rose…"

"No," I told him forcefully.

"But-"

"You promised not to ask me for help with homework, remember? That extends to letting you copy my work," I reminded him.

"Yeah, but if you remember," Al replied, "I had my fingers crossed when I made that promise so it doesn't count. Now are you going to let your favourite cousin get a detention or not?"

I sighed, and pulled my own notes out of my bag. "But this is the last time, okay?"

"Sure, sure," Al said, pulling out a roll of parchment and his quill. It was obvious even to me that he hadn't even listened to me and that he would be asking me again for help by the end of the day. I knew for a fact that he hadn't done the charms homework because he'd been at Quidditch practise.

I watched him alternating between scribbling out notes and eating pancakes for a minute, before shaking my head and turning back to my own toast.

"So, are you going to let Hugh and Lily use the you know what?" Scorpius asked, pushing away his empty bowl and pouring himself some juice.

"No, of course not," I answered, brushing the crumbs off my fingers after finishing my toast. "I told them I'd find them a book to use. They're obviously just not looking in the right ones."

He nodded. "Guess we should probably head off to Care of Magical Creatures."

"Wait! I haven't finished!" Al exclaimed, somehow doubling his writing speed. "There! That'll do. I've summarised what was on pages 651-708."

"638-700," Scorpius corrected automatically.

"Whatever," Al replied, handing me back my notes.

I was too busy peering over his shoulder at his notes however. "Al! You've copied what I wrote word for word!" I scolded. "If I lose marks, I'm telling Professor Cackling just what a cheat you are."

* * *

After our Care of Magical Creatures and Defence Against the Dark Arts lessons, I said goodbye to Scorpius and Albus.

"Where are you off to now?" Al asked, sounding almost annoyed at being left behind.

"The library," I said slowly.

"Shouldn't have asked," Al muttered.

"Hey," I complained. "I'm stopping my brother and your sister using that goddamn time machine again."

"You should have said," Al replied, starting to walk alongside me in the direction of the library. "You coming, Scorp?"

Scorpius shrugged his shoulders and followed. "Might as well."

When we reached the library, Hugo and Lily were already there, sat at one of the study tables with a stack of books.

"These are the books we've already looked at," Hugo told me. "Now tell me, Rose, from where will you procure this magic book?" I didn't appreciate his sarcasm when I was helping him but I disregarded it for the moment and studied the titles of the books he had indicated. _Merlinian Magic, The Life and Times of Merlin, Magic in the Age of Arthur, A History of Magic, Famous Wizards, The Best Witches and Wizards of the Ages _and even one called _Merlin's Beard_ were all there.

"Why don't we try the biography section?" I suggested.

"Done it," Hugo replied.

"How about-"

"The Arthurian Wizadry section? Looked there too."

Albus sniggered until I shot him a look.

"Just give me five minutes," I told them all, turning and surveying the shelves, wandering amongst them and picking up the odd book to read the chapter list.

After allowing me fifteen minutes to look, Albus stopped talking to Hugo and Lily and questioning them on what exactly it was they needed to learn about Merlin and said to me, "Give it up, Rose. You're never going to find anything. If Madam Pince couldn't help these two, there's no way you can find a book in this library that she couldn't. The only way you can help them is with the you-know-what."

"He's right, you know," Scorpius told me, when I looked around at the four of them.

Hugo begged me with his eyes.

I tried to resist, I really did, but for the first time in my life I was coming up blank. None of the books I'd picked up had been of any use. Nobody knew enough about Morgana Le Fay to write a book about her.

"Fine," I said.

"Yes!" Hugh crowed, earning him a steely glare from Madam Pince.

"_But _you have to promise to listen to me and do whatever I say. Promise?"

"You got it, Rose! You're the best sister in the world!"

I couldn't help smiling at that.

"We'll go tonight, after dinner, and this is the last time we use that machine. The. Last. Time," I said, punctuating each word with a pause, making eye contact with each of them to make sure they all got the message.

* * *

"Ready?" Al asked Hugh on his side.

Hugh nodded enthusiastically.

"You ready, Lils?" He asked, turning to Lily on his other side.

"You two?" He asked Scorpius and I across the table.

"I guess," I replied for both of us.

Together the five of us stood up from the dinner table, hoping to sneak away without the rest of our family noticing.

"Where are you lot off to?" Fred called, having a better sense for trouble than Peeves.

"Us?" Al asked. "We're just going back to the library. Rose is convinced she can find a book to help these two," he continued, indicating Lily and Hugo. It was a good job that Al spoke up, there was no way I'd have been able to successfully lie without giving away tells. Every time I lied, my palms sweated and I found myself fiddling with my fingers, scratching random itches on my arms and neck, and being unable to make eye contact. Al had no such trouble.

"Oh, see you in the Common Room later then for the exploding snap tournament," Fred replied, going back to finishing his pudding, completely buying our story.

As soon as we were out of sight of anybody in the hall, we hurried down the First Floor corridor and to the machine.

"Ready? 3, 2, 1," I counted down, already thinking about Merlin, the court of King Arthur and Morgana Le Fay.

* * *

**A/N: I hope you've enjoyed this chapter. I might not update the next one for two weeks, because I have two university exams in the coming week, but when I do get it up you'll get to read all about Rose, Scorpius, Al, Lily and Hugh's adventures in Arthurian England.**


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: An anonymous reviewer asked whether there would be any references to the BBC's TV show Merlin, and I'm glad to say that since I love that show I will be putting in as many as possible. Spot them if you can! **

* * *

"Ready? 3, 2, 1," I counted down, already thinking about Merlin, the court of King Arthur and Morgana Le Fay.

As the swooping sensations left my stomach and a collective astonished gasp resounded, I knew we had stopped travelling. The only question was whether we were in the right time and place. I looked up, coughing at the cloud of sandy dust that had suddenly swarmed around us, blinding and suffocating me. Wafting the air in front of me, I attempted to peer through, but as the ground vibrated it continued to swirl, constantly shifting and hiding the world from view. I waited with bated breath for it to dissipate, only to lose the ability to breathe entirely. The ground continued to shake with every hoof-beat of the horse and rider bearing down on us, lance extended. Horrified, I looked left, only to find another horse approaching. All around the audience were on their feet, only able to watch us get trampled to death.

My heart racing, I grabbed the hands of whoever was beside and shut my eyes tight, bracing myself for an impact that never came.

After a moment of unsettling silence, I squinted, slowly opening my eyes to find time frozen around us.

"Rose, did you do this?" Hugh asked with uncertainty, looking at the unmoving horses, lances just inches away from us.

I shook my head, the movement barely there at all. I couldn't even imagine the amount of power it would take to achieve such a feat. There was only one person I knew of who would even have the tenacity to attempt it.

"Merlin," I breathed, as through the unmoving cloud of dust walked a middle-aged man smiling benignly at us.

"Arthur and his tournaments," he tutted. "He really is a clotpole."

And I laughed. I actually laughed. It was just so absurd. I never imagined that those would be the first words I would hear the great Merlin say. My laugh broke the ice.

"Uh, Rose," Hugh said uncomfortably, tugging his hand out of my grip. I looked down, remembering that I had reached out unthinkingly, and was surprised to find my other hand encased in Scorpius' grip, who was just as seemingly unaware of it as I was.

I cleared my throat and pulled away my hand under the pretence of needing to use it to cover my mouth, feeling strangely embarrassed.

"Why don't we move this somewhere more appropriate," Merlin suggested, not giving us any time to react before we were whooshed out of the jousting pitch, time machine and all, and time for everyone else was unfrozen.

"That was almost as bad as travelling with this thing," Hugh groaned, holding his stomach and aiming a kick at the side of the time machine. I sympathised with him whole-heartedly. We'd used the machine eight times now and I still wasn't used to the sensations it caused.

"What is wrong with you? This thing's awesome. It's like being on a rollercoaster but so much better," Al exclaimed.

Meanwhile Merlin just looked between us all with some amusement and confusion before noticing someone behind us. I turned to look.

"Merlin!" she called. "Thank goodness! Are you all okay?"

The five of us nodded, whilst the mystery woman ran her hands over Lily's face, checking for any sign of injury.

"They're fine, Morgana," Merlin told her, looking both touched and bemused by her care. At the sound of her name, Lily and Hugo both gasped and turned to each other excitedly.

"We have so many questions for you both!" Lily practically squealed.

Morgana and Merlin shared an indecipherable look, but before either Hugo or Lily could even begin their interrogation, King Arthur was angrily striding over, flinging down his helmet as he drew near us.

"Merlin! What have I told you about controlling your druid friends?! They almost ruined my tournament!"

"Did you still defeat Myror, Sire?" Merlin asked.

"Well, of course," Arthur replied, narrowing his eyes at Merlin for his disrespectful tone. "But that's not the point."

"Arthur," Morgana interrupted. "No-one was hurt, you still won the tournament, your reputation is still intact. Calm down. Now, isn't it quite time for the celebratory victory feast? We do have guests, after all."

"I suppose the kitchen staff will be ready by now," Arthur admitted, turning on his heel. "Guinevere will be expecting us."

Morgana smiled, thinking the situation had been resolved.

Oh, and Merlin, just because you're not my manservant any more doesn't mean I still can't order you to clean the stables," Arthur added, looking back over his shoulder.

Merlin just grinned.

"Some things never change."

* * *

Before the feast, Morgana took Lily and me to her personal quarters, whilst Scorpius, Albus and Hugo were escorted away and given over to the ministrations of Arthur's new manservant, and with the help of her handmaiden, Sefa, made us look more suitable for a medieval feast. I barely recognised myself when they were done. My ginger hair had been pulled back into an elegant knot, and a simple circlet placed around my head. The gown Morgana had quickly altered for me was a beautiful teal thing, seeming to float around me in like wisps.

"Perfect," Morgana smiled as she finished adjusting my circlet.

The three of us entered the great hall of Camelot together, Morgana slightly ahead of us, and every person inside turned to watch our entrance.

I just made out Scorpius, Al and Hugh, the three of them openly gaping at Lily and me. It wasn't long before one of the knights approached me and I stammered my way through a flustered greeting and introduction, caught completely off-guard by his bow and the kiss he placed on the back of my hand.

"Does the lady care to dance?"

"Erm…"

There was a scuffle as everyone else rushed to take their seats after some kind invisible cue.

"Perhaps later," the Sir Leon smiled.

Whilst we enjoyed the feast that had been prepared for the jousting tournament to celebrate the victor, King Arthur, Hugo and Lily peppered both Merlin and Morgana with as many questions as they could. If they didn't end up get full marks for their essays, there was something wrong with Professor Binns. It was a pleasant dinner, however, filled with food as good as anything the house elves at Hogwarts could whip up, though I doubted the house elves would ever place a whole roasted hog, complete with an apple in it's mouth, on the house tables. But apparently not everyone was enjoying it.

Half way through the meal, King Arthur suddenly declared, "This must be the worst entertainment in all the kingdoms. This is a celebratory feast not a funeral feast. If you can't play something cheerful, I'll have to find someone else."

The poor minstrel swallowed, and resumed playing the lute, his fingers plucking the strings double time to weave a jauntier tune. I noticed Scorpius had stopped eating to watch, his eyes no doubt memorising the series of notes the court musician played.

I wasn't the only one who saw how much the music held his attention.

"I'm sure the King would be glad to accommodate a change of entertainment," Merlin muttered to him, standing and making his way to Arthur to whisper something in his ear.

"Please, relieve us of this despairing tripe," was the King's reply.

Merlin smiled and nodded for Scorpius to stand.

"Neat," Scorpius said, accepting the lute from Merlin and beginning to pluck at the strings. It wasn't long before he was singing along. "_Lately I've been, I've been losing sleep, dreaming about the things that we could be. But, baby, I've been, I've been praying hard, said no more counting dollars, we'll be counting stars. Yeah, we'll be counting…stars." _I smiled as he switched up the tempo and creating a mash-up of two songs. "_So show me family, all the blood that I will bleed. I don't know where I belong; I don't know where I went wrong. I can write a song. I belong with you, you belong with me, you're my sweetheart. I belong with you, you belong with me, you're my sweetheart." _

The next few notes he played were vaguely familiar and I found myself humming with him as he sang, _"You pull my strings, and push my soul. You fool my heart with every note. You drop a beat, and kiss my face. You make me move and cut the bass." _

As soon as the chorus came around though, I was singing the words too.

"_Why are you singing me love songs? What good is a long song, what good is a love song without the love? Why are you singing me love songs? What good is a love song, what good is a love song without the love? Why are we acting like lovers, we don't know each other even though we used to rule the world. Why are you singing me love songs? What good is a love song, what good is a love song without the love?"_

I stopped singing as Scorpius finished playing, looking over to find him staring at me intently as though he were compiling a study on me. Lily, on the other hand, looked between with smiling over something only she knew about.

"These are the strangest druids I've ever come across," Arthur murmured to his wife, where she sat at his side, the two of them lovingly holding hands. "And I thought Merlin was bad enough."

"Why did you make him your adviser then, Arthur?" Morgana asked, her eyes twinkling with humour.

"Just because he's odd, doesn't mean he's not helpful. At times," Arthur acknowledged.

"You mean you'd be lost without me," Merlin corrected.

"Please. I've fought the Great Dragon and a griffin."

The knights of Camelot around the table cheered.

Merlin simply raised his eyebrows.

"And how much did Merlin help you win?"

"A little," Arthur acquiesced.

Since everyone had finished eating, Scorpius continued to play music, no longer singing though, and the dancing began again. Arthur stepped out onto the cleared dance floor first with Guinevere hanging onto his arm, beginning a dance they obviously knew well. Morgana and Merlin followed them out onto the floor as did a collection of lords and ladies, knights and fair maidens. The only people not dancing were the servants, and us of course.

I watched Merlin and Morgana, noting how wide Merlin's grin grew when she was close-by, how their eyes were continuously locked on one another, oblivious to the other dancers around them, the chemistry between their two bodies twirling around each other without ever touching. Just watching them, I felt like I was intruding on their private time. I began to wonder why I'd never read about Merlin's relationship with Morgana in my own History of Magic readings. It was obvious that they felt deeply for one another. Before I could ponder it too much, I was distracted from my thoughts.

True to his word, Sir Leon approached me again before the song Scorpius was strumming ended, offering me his hand.

"Go on, Rose," Al said, pushing me forwards, no doubt wanting me to fall over and embarrass myself or something. "You'll be great."

I followed Sir Leon's lead as best I could, looking to the other couples too to check the choreography. I almost didn't notice the music Scorpius was playing building to a crescendo, the strumming turning from smooth and gentle to a heavy-handed, angry beat. But Sir Leon did, glancing over at my friend and chuckling.

As soon as Scorpius finished playing, he bowed once again and thanked me, before choosing another lady on a whim to dance with.

Relieved to have escaped humiliation, I hurried back to Albus, only to find that Lily and Hugo had gone onto the dance floor and were badly imitating everyone else.

"So, regret coming then?" Albus asked.

I turned to him, answering him with just a look. I hated being proved wrong.

The rest of the evening passed in a pleasurable blur. I was beginning to wonder how we were going to announce our departure when the Queen Guinevere told me that she had had rooms prepared for us and we were welcome to stay as long as we liked. With Lily and Hugo falling half-asleep leaning against each other, it seemed stupid to refuse. One of the servants showed us all to our allocated rooms, and we said goodnight with the intention to leave the following morning.

* * *

**A/N: I know most people probably imagined Merlin either as being some old, bearded wizard looking a bit like Dumbledore or as he looks in the BBC series – I know I did – so I hope that you didn't mind me having Rose and the gang visiting him when he was middle-aged. Also, thanks to the first and second seasons of Merlin, I'm a major MerlinxMorgana shipper (in my head any storylines after those seasons never happened) so sorry if you didn't really like the fact that Morgana wasn't a villain in this. In case you were wondering, the songs I listened to writing this and used were Counting Stars by OneRepublic, Ho Hey by the Lumineers (as requested by the anonymous reviewer) and Without the Love by Demi Lovato. I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Let me know what you think!  
**


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: Hey guys. Last chapter set in Arthurian England coming up. **

* * *

"So, get all your answers last night?" I asked Lily as we ate the breakfast brought up to our room.

"Yeah, Binns isn't going to know what's hit him." I opened my mouth to reply, but Lily cut me off. "I know, I know. He's a ghost, nothing can hit him; it'll just go through him."

"Actually…I was just going to say I'm glad you're being so conscientious. It's nice to not be the only who cares about grades and all." I watched as she flushed red right up to her hairline, ducking her head. "Hey," I said gently, "being smart isn't a bad thing. Just because the rest of your family apparently has mush for brains, doesn't mean you have to be the same."

Still she refused to look up at me.

"You know, Al wasn't always such a…" I trailed off, searching for the right word.

"Moron," Lily suggested.

"Right, he wasn't always a moron," I laughed. "He used to sit and do his homework in the library every evening with me. He used to sit at the front of the classroom; not the back. Sometimes he even used to beat me to the punch answering the teacher's questions."

Lily looked surprised. It wasn't difficult to imagine Al writing home during First Year and telling her all about fabricated escapades. "So what changed?"

"A lot of things, I guess. He became better friends with Scorpius than with me. James and Fred stepped away from all the trouble making and everybody just looked to Al and Scorpius to take their place. That kind of pressure…well, it was no surprise that when Oliver Shaw and Sam Swarek asked them if they wanted in on a prank on Filch they said yes."

"Shaw and Swarek?! Really?"

"Really," I replied, shaking my head at Al and Scor's naivety. Even Fred and James wouldn't have believed the pair of Slytherin seventh years were being sincere when they said they would guard the hallway outside Filch's office. "Look, what I'm trying to say is don't change who you are for other people. Just be yourself, Lily."

"I will."

I smiled, shaking my head as Al pounded on the door from outside.

"Oi! Girls! Hurry up!"

"Guess we should probably get dressed," I muttered to Lily, already taking my school robes out of the wardrobe.

After hurriedly zipping my skirt up, tucking my shirt inside it and pulling my woollen jumper down over the top, I worked on my taming my hair into submission. Unfortunately for me, I had inherited my mother's frizzy gene and every day was a battle. But no matter how much I palmed my hair, it seemed that I was fighting a losing battle.

Lily had already finished changing into her own uniform and thrown open the door to admit the boys.

"Give it up, Rosie," Hugo said. "You're never going to get it to lie flat. Not without a potion, anyway. Just accept the fact that you're always going to have a haystack on top of your head."

Grumbling, I turned and shot him a glare. He knew that my hair was a sore point.

"Hugo, you might be my little brother but if you don't shut up, I'll turn your whole head into a haystack. And I'm pretty sure I wouldn't even feel guilty."

"Let's be honest for a second here, Rose," interjected Al. "You're afraid of spiders, but you still feel guilty after letting Poppy loose on them."

"What is this? Gang-up-on-Rose day?" I complained. "Jeez, guys."

"We're not ganging up on you. We're simply stating the facts," Al asserted. "Fact one: like Hugh said, you're never going to get your hair to lie flat, at least not in this century." When I turned to look at him, he added, "Come on, you don't even have a hairbrush to use. Fact two: you wouldn't give Hugh a haystack for a head _because _he's your brother and you love him. And finally, fact 3: you're a wuss."

Whilst Hugh, Al and Scorpius fell about laughing, the three of them touching fists, I rolled my eyes at Lily, mouthing, "Boys."

When I'd had enough of their laughter, I cleared my throat. "Alright, enough. We need to go back to school, remember?"

Sobering up, Scorpius replied, "We're in our uniforms and ready, aren't we?"

"It was you we were waiting for," pointed out Albus.

"Well, if we're all ready, we should be on our way. Let's go." I waited for the boys to leave first, took one last look around the room to make sure we weren't leaving anything and walked out the door Scorpius was holding open for me. "Thanks."

I'd been hoping to get away quickly, but I should have realised Morgana would have had other ideas. When we got out of the Castle and back to the time machine, she was already waiting for us with Merlin, the two of them holding hands.

"Thought you'd leave without saying goodbye?" Morgana asked.

"Right, sorry, we've just got to get back to…"

"The future?" Merlin suggested, smiling gently at me. I gaped. "You wear curious clothes, speak differently and you most certainly aren't druids. You really thought you could fool me? So, am I right?"

"Yes," I reluctantly admitted. "We're students at this school-"

"-Hogwarts," Al butted in.

"Right, Hogwarts."

"And Lily and I have to write an essay on you, Merlin, for our History of Magic teacher," Hugo said, continuing on from me.

Merlin and Morgana shared a look of shock.

"Seriously? You two are the most famous-"

I slapped my hand over Hugh's mouth before he could finish that sentence. He was as bad as Al, putting his foot in everything.

"We're famous?" Morgana asked incredulously.

"Well done, Hugh," Lily muttered out of the corner of her mouth.

"What? What did I do?" he hissed back as Scorpius and I frantically backtracked, trying to fix the mess Hugo had just made. It was bad enough that Merlin had worked out we were from the future, but now he was getting a peak into his _own _future. Who knew what kind of damage that would do.

"Er, well, Hugo didn't really mean famous," Scorpius said, rubbing the back of his neck. "See, it's kind of difficult to explain, and really we've probably said too much already."

"Yeah and we _really _don't have time to get into all that," I added.

"Yeah, wouldn't want our teachers to notice we're missing. You wouldn't believe the trouble we'll get it," Al said. "I've already got detention this weekend. Don't want to get any more."

"So we should really get going-"

"-Relax. Obviously this is something you can't really talk about. We won't force you. If you need to go, go," Merlin told us, his benign smile never leaving his face.

I smiled back gratefully and nodded to the others, each of us taking our places around the time machine, leaving the world's most famous wizard and the woman he clearly loved behind us.

* * *

**A/N: So they're heading back to Hogwarts again. I hope you enjoyed these few chapters with Merlin. Thanks for reading!**


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N: Because she's been so awesome, reading this story since the beginning (and reviewing every chapter) and fangirling about Once Upon a Time with me, I asked Pika-Thunder where she thought the gang should go next, and this chapter and the following one were inspired by her suggestion. I hope you all enjoy it. **

* * *

"Welcome back," Professor Longbottom said, looking neither pleased nor displeased by our appearance.

"Oh, bugger," Al muttered, as the rest of us shuffled around the time machine to see one of our family's closest friend and our headmaster standing in the doorway.

"I see you've discovered Helena Gladys Wudgens' time machine." He continued speaking before one of us could try to come up with some excuse. "Quite something, isn't it? A real shame it has to be hidden away down here."

"Professor?" I asked, frowning in confusion.

"When Helena Gladys Wudgens presented it to us, we took it with the expectation that it would make a fantastic resource for History of Magic classes. You wouldn't have to just read about the Goblin Rebellions, you could see them first hand. Only, Helena forgot to account for the dangers of time travel. Unfortunately, Professor Timmins is still in St Mungos."

I remembered Professor Timmins from last year, our old potions teacher who had left rather mysteriously at the end of the year and was replaced by Professor Jamieson. Opening his big mouth, Hugh asked, "Why? What happened to him?"

Professor Longbottom looked grim as he answered, "He'd always been rather enthusiastic about the Giant Wars, and as soon as the machine arrived here, he took a trip with it. We've not been able to piece together what exactly happened, he was so shell-shocked he doesn't like to talk about it much, but we surmise that he was set upon by giants – the machine allowing interaction with the time period it takes you to – and was grievously injured. He made it back, but he's never been the same since. Nor Professor Smith, I'm afraid."

"And what happened to Professor Smith?" I asked, fearing the answer. I hadn't ever heard of Professor Smith, not even from Teddy or Victoire who had been at Hogwarts before me and since graduated.

Professor Longbottom looked me straight in the eye. "He took a trip to the future. Saw something he shouldn't have, I expect, and he now resides in St Mungos full-term." I gasped in horror. "Time is not to be meddled with, Miss Weasley," Professor Longbottom said, giving me such a shrewd look I started panicking. "Now, if you hurry you might be able to make it up to Gryffindor Tower before curfew."

Albus nodded, breathing a sigh of relief at having escaped another bout of detentions, and hurried past Professor Longbottom and out the door.

As we trudged up the Grand Staircase, Albus was still crowing about Professor Longbottom not punishing us.

"The perks of being the children of his best friends, I guess," Scorpius muttered with a shrug of his shoulders.

"And what about all that stuff about Professor Timmins and Professor Smith?

"What about it?" I asked.

"I don't know. Just seemed a bit bogus to me. Like he was trying to scare us away," Al explained. "I mean, teachers going mad and ending up in St Mungos, come on. I know Hogwarts lacks a death and injury clause in the teaching contracts, but you've got to admit that it's a bit unbelievable."

Scorpius, Lily and I all glanced at each other and shook our heads.

"Didn't Dad tell you about Professor Lockhart?"

"Well, yeah, but that was years ago when the Defence Against the Dark Arts post was cursed, wasn't it?" Al told Lily. "That kind of stuff doesn't happen at Hogwarts anymore."

"Then how do you explain Andy McDermott's disappearance last year?" I challenged.

"Oh, I forgot about that," Al said, grinning slightly.

"Mate," Scorpius replied, "He's _still _missing. It's not funny."

"Well, what's to say he didn't find the time machine-"

"-Professor Longbottom would have told us," said Lily, interrupting him with a roll of her eyes.

"And," I added, "I'm pretty sure that if the machine led to the death of a student, he would have destroyed it. In fact, I don't understand why he hasn't already…"

"Well, exactly, because none of that stuff he told us about actually happened!" Albus exclaimed, flinging his hands up in the air. "He just wants to keep the time machine all to himself."

"I'm not saying I believe all that stuff about Professor Timmins and Professor Smith," Hugo said, adding, "Chiselwick," to the portrait of the Fat Lady before continuing with his previous thought, "but Professor Longbottom is too nice to do that."

"He's the headmaster, how nice can he really be?"

"Al!" I slapped his arm. "He's bought you a birthday and Christmas present every year! How can you say that?!"

Chastised, Albus looked down at the faded rug he was scuffing his shoe on.

"Finally done in the library, I see," Fred said, looking up from the piece of parchment he had been writing on. "Get everything you needed?"

"Oh yeah," Hugh replied, smirking. "Just got to write the essay now, haven't we, Lils?"

"Well, I'm almost done with my transfiguration notes, so you can have this table if you hang on a sec. And you are _just _in time for the exploding snap tournament."

"Thanks, Fred," Lily said, stealing the vacant seat beside him to wait.

Al, Scorpius and I dashed to the sofa in front of the fire as Niamh and Robin left and headed up the dormitory stairs to bed. James was already sat on the rug in front of us, shuffling the deck of exploding snap cards whilst he waited for Fred to finish his homework. After the deck of cards was sufficiently rearranged, James began drawing up the scoreboard.

"So, are you guys in?"

"What do you think, bro?" Al replied, snatching the chalk from his elder brother's hand and writing his name in the table. "Scorp?" Scorpius nodded and his name was added to the table to. "Rosie?"

"I'll just watch, or there'll be so many players and games we'll be here all night."

I thought I heard Albus mutter, "Bore," under his breath but I couldn't be sure.

"The exploding snap master has arrived," Fred announced as he launched his quill at James' head. "Let the tournament begin!"

Fred and James went head to head first, James recruiting Albus to try and distract Fred from the game. I laughed as the ends of Fred's hair turned black, after he tapped his wand on the deck too slowly and got two unmatched cards exploding in his face. Smoke still surrounding him, he carried on playing however, and eventually managed to beat James, getting just one more snap. Scorpius and Al went next, Albus beating Scorpius easily with his quick reflexes, meaning for the final game Al was facing Fred.

Whilst they played, I glanced over to find Hugh and Lily eagerly writing up their essay, quills flying across the parchment, whilst they conferred occasionally over what they were writing. Looking back to the game, I sniggered as James held his hands over Fred's eyes, enabling Al to win.

"Champion!" Albus crowed. "I'm champion!"

I couldn't help wishing that things would be this way forever. At the end of the year, James and Fred would be leaving and going off to do who knew what. I didn't think either of them had given much thought to what they wanted to do when they finished school. I didn't even know what I wanted to do, and I was supposed to be the smart, organised, collected one in the family. I had no idea what the future had in store for me.

I was still thinking about the future as I slid under the covers of my bed, and drew the curtains closed around my four-poster.

But two hours later, I was still wide awake, my brain still ticking, my mind still whirring. Sighing, I threw off the covers, giving up on the idea that I would eventually fall asleep. I peeked through the curtains around my bed before sliding out between them and padding barefoot out of the dormitory. At the bottom of the stairs, I almost had a heart attack, tripping over Niamh's cat, Poppy. Heart hammering, I breathed a sigh of relief that I hadn't screamed and woken the entirety of Gryffindor Tower. Gently nudging the cat aside, I continued to the portrait hole and stepped out, tightening my fingers around my wand.

I had a few close shaves with the ghosts, almost getting caught out of bed, but eventually I made it down to the First Floor corridor.

Standing in front of the machine, I muttered to myself, "You're being reckless, Rose. Just go back to bed."

But despite the fact that I _knew _shouldn't, I took the five short steps that brought me within touching distance of the time machine and raised my hand until my fingers were hovering less than an inch away from it. My mind was screaming at me not to do it, yet still my fingers reached and the now-familiar swooping sensation filled my stomach. I closed my eyes against the encroaching dizziness, only opening them when that whooshing of air had faded away from my eyes.

Looking around at the familiar stone walls of Hogwarts was reassuring, though for a moment or two I was filled with doubt. Had I managed it? Had I made it to the future?

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**A/N: Apologies for the short chapter again. I was hoping for this one to be longer, but I've got an exam tomorrow. It's the last one though, so hopefully I can focus more energy on this story afterwards. Any thoughts on this chapter will be gratefully appreciated. **

**Also, just for fun, you might not have noticed it but this chapter had a little reference to HG Wells, in the form of Helena Gladys Wudgen. One of HG Wells' books was The Time Machine. I haven't read the book, or anything by HG Wells, actually, but I did watch Warehouse 13 in which there is a female HG Wells.**


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N: So it's been a bit longer than I expected. Sorry! Hopefully this long chapter makes up for how long it's been since I updated. My only excuse is I got a bit too engrossed with Bones and watched all 8 seasons in under 3 weeks (seriously I watched an entire season in a day! What can I say? I have a very obsessive personality.), as well as the fact that I had to pack up all my stuff at university and move back home. Sorry! Anyway, hope you enjoy the chapter and that it's worth the wait. It took me a while to work out exactly what I wanted to happen, but I'm finally happy with the result. Let me know what you think!**

* * *

I stared at the walls a moment longer, trying to see if the stone looked older, but it was a fruitless activity. In all the pictures and drawings I'd seen, Hogwarts always looked the same, unchanged by time. With only one way to know for sure whether I had indeed managed to travel forwards in time, I left the safety of the time machine and the empty classroom on the first floor corridor.

"Watch it!" a boy yelled as he rushed past, almost colliding with me as he weaved between students walking the corridor.

Startled, I hung back in the doorway, watching the many students walking between classes. I didn't think I'd ever seen a school corridor so busy. Each year group only had forty students, but it looked as if there were easily more than forty students hurrying to make their next lesson. The fact that I didn't seem to recognise any of their faces reassured her and I dashed out into the fray. Hurrying along behind two Slytherin girls, I paid little attention to the conversations of the students around her until the one of the Slytherin girls spoke loudly enough to pique her interest.

"Professor Weasley's not going to be happy if we're late because Johnny-_the-blob-_Marsden was holding up the entire school getting stuck in the corridor again."

Aside from bristling over the unnecessary insult, I wondered which of my cousins had become a Hogwarts teacher. Without having to think about it, I decided that perhaps I could waylay my plans to go to the library and see what information I could find about her life after I left Hogwarts.

I was careful not to follow the girls too closely, keeping a student or two between them as they left the First Floor corridor and headed up the Grand Staircase a flight or two. I kept listening out for more information, but most of the Slytherin girls' conversation; save for more bitchy gossip, was lost in the multitude of voices surrounding me. When the two girls turned off the Grand Staircase at one of the Second Floor corridors I almost lost them, but after a brief second collision with a young teacher, I managed to catch up, only to hear them swooning.

"He's so _hot!" _the shorter of the two exclaimed as she dramatically clutched the front of her jumper right over her heart.

"I know," the other sighed. "His hair is just perfect."

I shot a look over my shoulder, seeking the blonde-haired teacher in question since in the kerfuffle I hadn't really looked at his face; rather I had kept mine aimed downwards in embarrassment.

"And his eyes!"

"So soft and warm," the tall one continued, finishing her friend's sentence.

"Like liquid silver."

As one, they both gave a dreamy sigh and turned into one of the charms classrooms.

"Girls, you're late," the teacher in the room admonished as I slipped in unnoticed and silently took a spare desk at the back of the classroom. "That's the third time this term. If it happens again, I'll have to take five points from Slytherin."

"Sorry, Professor Weasley," the two girls intoned miserably, shuffling to their seats.

I glanced down at my uniform before looking around the room and breathing a sigh of relief as I noticed the mixture of red and green ties. It seemed the Gryffindors and Slytherins were having their charms lesson together.

Whilst the students around me piled their textbooks on the tables and stowed their wands, retrieving quills and ink instead from their bags, I intently studied the young redhead standing in front of the blackboard, already using her wand to inscribe information for the students. There was no doubting she was a Weasley. Even if she hadn't had a headful of copper hair, the large smattering of freckles across her long, thin nose would have given her away. But despite that, I struggled to identify which Weasley I was looking at. Was it Lucy or Dominique? It could easily have been Molly too. Aside from the obvious, I couldn't help feeling there was something familiar about her. Trouble was, sitting at the back of the classroom; I couldn't see any of the important things like Professor Weasley's eyes or wand.

It had to be Lucy, I decided eventually after spending a few minutes scrutinising the robes she was wearing. Even if Dominique had decided to stop dying her hair blonde, she would have been wearing patterned robes; certainly nothing as plain as the midnight blue ones Professor Weasley sported. She didn't look young enough to be Lucy. And as for Molly, I knew she would be too professional and conservative for anything other than black robes whilst they were working.

As Lucy left the blackboard and began a circuit of the classroom, I grabbed a book off one of the bookshelves running alongside the wall by which I sat and ducked my head over her desk, hoping to avoid being recognised. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Lucy pause in her steps and survey me as I bent over the book and pretended to be reading attentively. I held my breath, waiting for Lucy to move on as I prayed the teacher wouldn't realise a new student had appeared in the class. Glancing sideways, I could have sworn I saw the corners of Lucy's mouth lilt upwards, but as soon as I flicked my eyes back to look, I found my cousin had moved on and was heading back to the front of the classroom. I was so focused on watching my cousin, trying to reconcile the differences between the thirteen year old girl I knew and the woman I saw in front of me, that I only realised the lesson had ended when twenty or so chairs suddenly scraped across the floor as the students vacated them. After slotting the book I'd borrowed back onto its shelf, I hurried to follow the Slytherin and Gryffindor students out the door and stopped to lean against the wall just beside it.

As Lucy exited the classroom and turned right, I followed, again noting how her ginger hair seemed to be more muted compared to the fiery brightness I was used to seeing on my thirteen year old cousin. The hair wasn't the only difference I noticed; I was sure Lucy's knees weren't quite so knobbly. I even thought that she seemed to move differently.

If Lucy knew she was being followed to the teacher's lounge, she gave no indication of it and carried on her break routine as usual. The lounge door was ajar, a few other professors already relaxing in the armchairs with steaming cups of snakeweed tea and warmed dragon milk. With my cousin inside what was probably the one room in Hogwarts Castle where I couldn't go, I settled down outside the door.

"Hey honey," I heard Lucy say to someone inside. "How's your day so far?"

"Hodgins and Marcus Murphy were causing trouble," the man she was talking to replied. "I left some cherry syrup for you on the side there. Thought you could mix it with what's left of the pumpkin juice."

I heard what could only be the two teacher's smooching before my cousin sighed, "That's why I love you."

"Love you too," the man murmured, the smile on his face audible in his voice.

I continued to eavesdrop on their conversation, feeling evermore curious as to just who Lucy Potter was obviously going out with. As the break drew to a close and the teachers began to file out of the lounge, I found myself looking again at the sleek blonde hair of the teacher the two Slytherin girls had been fawning over. As he and Lucy headed separate ways, I was momentarily torn. But looking at the man's retreating figure was enough to spark my curiosity once more and I stood up, decision made, hurrying after him as I once more forgot all about my plans to go to the library.

I didn't worry much about keeping my distance. After all, there was already a gaggle of girls following Lucy's boyfriend, giggling every time he looked over his shoulder at them; it wasn't like he would notice one extra student. Whilst I walked behind, I couldn't help noticing his familiar slim frame and wondering whether the man was someone I knew at school, perhaps one of the boys in Lucy's year. I was still trying to think of who it could be as I wandered into Professor Kline's usual classroom, though the room was devoid of her numerous belongings from Norway. Instead, the room was almost boring in comparison, filled with a number of different textbooks on the art of transfiguration and a few hanging empty cages.

"Morning Professor Malfoy," one girl sat at the very front of the class said, causing my head to jerk upright.

"_Malfoy? No, it can't be," _I thought in shock, but even as the words passed through my mind, I was cursing myself for not recognising Scorpius' platinum hair. It wasn't like it was a common hair colour after all. Even Lorcan and Lysander Scamander didn't have hair that bright. _"Lucy and Scorpius?!" _

As each of the girls in the classroom – Hufflepuff students, I noticed – smiled at Scorpius, the boys rolled their eyes at each other.

Again, I sat unnoticed at the back of the classroom with a desk to myself whilst Scorpius instructed the class of sixth years on the Gemino Curse before letting them loose to practise. To fit in, I took my wand from my pocket and began practising the spell myself, picking it up after a few minutes. Once I had managed to duplicate the piece of clean parchment in front of me, I laid my wand on the table and looked across the classroom as Scorpius demonstrated the spell again for a dark-skinned boy. I wasn't the only one watching. The two girls in front of me also seemed to have forgotten they were supposed to be twinning their quills and were quietly talking about their teacher.

"How long has it been since they got together again?" the one on the left asked.

"I can't remember. He only started teaching here last year though, so it can't have been longer than that, right?"

"Who knows," the other muttered glumly. "I bet Professor Weasley couldn't wait to get her claws into him."

"Yeah, I bet you're right."

"I bet he doesn't even love her, she's probably using a love potion or something. It's really not fair."

"Totally," her friend concurred, though I got the impression that this girl would have agreed even if she didn't think that. It was slightly surprising to hear the two girls talking like that given that they were Hufflepuff students, but I supposed that every girl gossiped every now and again. Dominique and I were no exception.

"I just really hate her, you know," the girl curly-haired with jealousy, who appeared to have started the conversation, said finally, venom seeping into her voice.

I frowned, thinking, _"What's Lucy ever done to you?" _I knew without a doubt that Lucy would never use love potion to enchant somebody into falling in love with her. If she was in a relationship with Scorpius, it was a genuine one. Still, I couldn't help feeling troubled. How had Lucy and Scorpius even gotten together? He was my friend, not hers.

At the end of the lesson, I abandoned Scorpius and the rest of the school as they went for lunch in the Great Hall, and finally headed to the library. I wasn't surprised to find it empty: there weren't many people who would give up the delicious efforts of Hogwarts' House Elves for the stuffy library. Without bothering to even sit down for a moment first, I grabbed the first copy of _A Wizarding Genealogy _and began to flip through. After not being able to find my name anywhere in the obviously outdated issue, I dropped it back down onto the table where I had found it and turned to survey the shelves, thinking hard.

After searching through every book I could think to look in, up to and including fifty different copies of Hogwarts' yearbooks, I slammed the cover of the last book down in frustration. Over an hour of pouring over books and I still hadn't managed to find out what I had gone on to do after leaving Hogwarts. Defeated, I slid the books I had been reading back into the correct places on the bookshelves and decided that perhaps I was better off not knowing. With that in mind, I left the library and walked back down to the First Floor corridor, intending to return to my own time.

Halfway down the corridor, I heard voices coming from one of the empty classrooms. At first I dismissed them as two students simply skiving and hiding, but it was obvious from just a few words that the two people in the classroom were too old to be students. Curiosity flaring, I gently nudged the door further ajar and listened closely.

"What time did you tell your parents to meet us?" Now listening properly, it only took me a moment to realise that it was Scorpius who had spoken.

"I told Mum one thirty in the Three Broomsticks," Lucy replied.

"Okay," Scorpius replied, sounding jittery – something Lucy obviously noticed too as she chuckled slightly.

"Would you stop worrying?"

"Who said I was worrying? I'm fine," he insisted. Peering around the door, I saw them perched side by side on the edge of Scorpius' desk. Lucy rolled her eyes. "What? I'm fine. I am. I'm not thinking about your father cursing me at all."

"Good, because that's not going to happen," Lucy said. "He likes you, remember?"

"Yeah, but that was when I was just your friend and not your fiancé! He doesn't even know we've been dating…"

Lucy laughed. "It'll be fine."

"I sure hope so. At least we're telling them in public. He can't do anything too bad in public, right?"

"Please. You think my mum's going to let Dad do anything? He'll be on his best behaviour. Now, would you just forget that we're going to tell my parents that we're engaged and relax?"

He nodded, but ten seconds later he was dragging his bottom lip through his teeth again.

"You're still thinking about my dad running you out of Hogsmeade, aren't you?"

Guiltily, Scorpius nodded.

Lucy stood up and moved to stand in between Scorpius' legs, placing her hands on his shoulders and forcing him to look her directly in the eye. "That's not going to happen," she promised. "He's going to be happy for us. You know he is – he's been asking me why I haven't brought any boyfriends home to meet him for years." He nodded, but despite Lucy's massaging hands, his shoulders were still full of tension. "What's it going to take for you to relax?"

Scorpius shrugged. "Maybe I need your help," he murmured.

Lucy beamed as Scorpius' arms came up around her waist. I felt my cheeks burn as she latched onto his lips, and glanced away, swallowing around the lump in my throat.

"Better?" I heard Lucy ask.

"Much. Thanks." There was a few moments of silence before Scorpius asked, "You know I love you right?"

"Yes, but I wouldn't mind hearing it again," she teased, rubbing her nose against his.

Scorpius kissed her again before breaking away. "God, I love you. Seriously, I love you so much, Rose."

I gasped; somewhere in the back of my mind glad that they were still too busy kissing to hear the noise.

"_I love you so much, Rose? __**Rose?**__ That's me in there?!" _

Completely stupefied, I turned my attention back to the ginger girl and finally saw my own icy-blue eyes in her face.

Eyes widening as I stumbled away from the door in shock.

I don't know how I made it back to the time machine, let alone back to my own time or dormitory. I was still so astonished that I was barely able to think. It was a miracle that in my dazed condition I wasn't caught by Filch or one of the prefects.

Falling into bed, I stared into the canopy above my bed.

"_Rose, look who's finally turned up?" Albus said, nodding over at the open door of the Hog's Head where Scorpius stood, brushing snow off his shoulders and stamping it off his boots. I nodded at Albus and glanced away again, feeling embarrassed. Al stood and clapped Scor on the shoulder once he reached our booth. As they sat back down, Al looked around at us all. "Isn't this great? The old gang reunited!"_

_Poppy nodded enthusiastically as Albus wrapped an arm around her shoulders and she burrowed into his side, resting her head against his shoulder. _

_On my left, Lysander Scamander took my hand and squeezed it briefly before kissing my cheek. I blushed to my roots and ducked my head, peeking out from under my eyelashes to find Scorpius staring at us. After a few moments, he looked away, his mouth downturned and his eyes sad. _

"_So, how's the Ministry treating you, Scor?" Albus asked. _

"_Fine," he replied. _

"_That's it? It's fine? Come on, mate, you're interning with Uncle Percy! You must be bored out of your wits!"_

_Scorpius just shrugged, looking uncomfortable as everyone watched him. _

"_Well," Al said, breaking the awkward atmosphere. "I'm just glad you managed to get the time off to meet up with us. "You probably won't be able to do it in a few years when you're the Minister for Magic." _

"_Al, I'm not going to be Minister for Magic," Scorpius replied, smiling slightly._

"_And why not?" Al demanded. "I'd choose you. We all would."_

"_Yes, but none of you are in the Order of Merlin or the Wizengamot and therefore it doesn't matter who you would choose," he pointed out slowly. _

"_We'll see," was all Albus said in reply. "So, how are things going for you and Lorcan in Germany, Lysander?"_

"_Great. We're close to proving that the red-headed Germanic pixies and red-bellied Germanic pixies are in fact two different but very similar species of pixie. Lorcan stayed behind to carry on studying them. He's not entirely pleased that I came when there was so much work to be done, but I jumped at the chance to see Rose." He smiled fondly at me. "She's so busy at Hogwarts, aren't you, Love?"_

_I nodded quickly. _

"_You'll have to let us accompany you back. It'd be good to see the old castle again, wouldn't it, Poppy? I for one would really enjoy visiting Myrtle's Bathroom again. Remember that was where we…" He grinned at his girlfriend, wiggling his eyebrows whilst the rest of us pretended to be busy inspecting the knots in the table or tracking the progress of dust falling from the beams running across the ceiling. _

"_I'm sure I can arrange something," I finally said quietly, drawing Scorpius' attention. Again, my cheeks flushed and I excused myself for a few moments. Staring in the mirror in the toilets, I told myself to get a grip. After splashing water onto my face, I took a deep breath and was ready. I took one last glance in the mirror, checking my hair and reapplying my make-up as quickly as possible, and then exited the toilets, walking straight into someone. "Oh, Scorpius," I breathed, looking up. "Sorry."_

"_Rose."_

"_Yes?"_

"_I-" He paused, seeming to think better of whatever he was going to say. I found myself, like always, locking eyes with him. His eyes were cloudy, a secret battle raging inside them._

"_Are you…" I hesitated, trying to find the right word before settling for okay. "Are you…okay?"_

_He never answered. Instead, he suddenly leaned forwards and pressed his lips to mine, one of his arms pulling me against his chest whilst he moved backwards. Gasping, my lips seemed to respond by themselves, opening to let his tongue inside my mouth. His other hand shot out to hold the door as we fell through it into the bathroom. He backed me up against one of the sinks, the counter digging into my back for a moment before his hands found my thighs and boosted me to sit on top of it. His lips drifted down to my neck, sucking over my pulse for a second before common sense hit me and I reminded him breathlessly, "Lysander." He tore his lips away, looking tortured until I kissed him again, my fingers hooking under his pullover and lifting it up his chest-_

I started awake breathing hard, wondering how I'd even managed to get to sleep.

"Alright there, Rosie?" Dom called from across the room where she was already pulling on her cloak. "You look a little red in the cheeks. Weren't having a hot dream about a guy, were you?" she said, laughing at the absurdity of the idea, with no clue as to how right she was.

Mind racing, I sat there for a minute, trying to slow my galloping heart and collect myself. Finally, when I was alone and my body no longer felt like it was on fire, I dragged myself out of bed and dressed before leaving Gryffindor Tower for breakfast.

Spotting Albus sat on one side of the table, I began walking between the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw tables to take a seat beside him, looking around as I went for Scorpius. Thankfully he was nowhere in sight and I sat down to enjoy my breakfast.

"Rose…" Al began, when I was halfway through my bowl of porridge. "You know you love me…"

"What is it this time?" I asked resignedly, already knowing that he wanted to copy a piece of homework and just in the dark over which piece it would be.

"Can I take a look at your Charms homework?"

I snorted. "Al, why don't you just be honest and admit that you're going to copy it?"

"If you know I want to copy it, does that mean you'll let me?" he asked gleefully.

I dug around under the table for my bag and the parchment I'd written my Charms essay on before coming back up and handing it to Albus.

"Thanks!"

"No prob-" I said, getting cut off by my own small, startled scream as I was tapped on the shoulder. I whirled around and instantly flushed. "Oh, Scorpius, it's you," I squeaked.

He frowned at the noise. "Rose, are you okay?"

"F-fine," I stuttered, trying desperately not to think about what I had seen in the future and my dream. Of course, it was futile. There was no way I'd ever been able to look at him without remembering them. I'd never think of him the same way again. I didn't think I'd ever be able to stand in the same room as him. "I'm going to Owlery," I suddenly announced, saying the first thing that came into my head as I stood up. "I've got a letter for Mum and Dad."

"See you later," Albus mumbled around a mouthful of bacon.

Rushing from the Great Hall, I closed my eyes in relief to be away. Once I was outside the doors, I hurried down to the Dungeons, a whole twenty minutes early for our Potions lesson. When Scorpius, Albus and Dominique arrived, I purposely asked Dom about Dylan Lynch's new haircut, knowing she would be able to go on for ages about it and that Scorpius wouldn't be able to talk to me if he tried. Dom was still describing in livid detail the exact colour of Dylan's hair as we entered the classroom, giving me an excuse to sit beside her rather than Scorpius.

All day I managed to avoid sitting beside Scorpius, but it was obvious he was beginning to notice something was going on. All through Care of Magical Creatures, our last lesson of the day, he kept shooting glances which I studiously ignored at me. At the end of the lesson, he tried to walk back up to the castle with me, offering me his umbrella since it was raining and I had yet to pull mine out from the depths of my bag. But before he could open it, I dashed over to Albus and crowded under his umbrella with Dominique.

Scorpius was obviously annoyed with me the next day, glaring at me over breakfast. Unfortunately for me, I got paired with him in charms. Ironically, we were supposed to be practising silencing charms on one another.

Scorpius angrily flicked his wand as he grumbled, "Silencio."

"Your wand movement is wrong," I told him, demonstrating the correct way to perform the spell.

"Oh, so you're talking to me today," he said irritably.

"I was never _not _talking to you," I snapped, shocked by just how moody he was.

"Please," he scoffed, unable to continue since I took my turn to silence him. As soon as I removed him from the charm however, he spoke again. "How come you were avoiding me all day yesterday then?"

I squirmed. I didn't want to lie to him, but nor did I want to tell him the reasons for my behaviour. What was I supposed to say?

"Well?" he demanded, refraining from charming me so that I could answer.

"Mr Malfoy, let's see your silencing charm," prompted Professor Cage, seeming to suddenly appear at Scorpius' shoulder.

"Silencio," Scorpius said, this time jabbing his wand in the right way.

"Excellent, Mr Malfoy. A perfect silencing charm," Professor Cage commended before calling to the class, "That will be all today, Class. Well done all of you! Please remove the silencing charms on your partners and you are free to leave."

"Finite incantatem," Scorpius said, releasing me from the charm.

I left the classroom as quickly as I could, but Scorpius still caught up to me in the corridor, grabbing my arm to stop me.

"We weren't done talking," he reminded me.

"We aren't?" I asked weakly.

"You were going to tell me why you've been avoiding me. Remember?" When I said nothing he asked, "What have I done, Rose? Is it because of what I said about Harry and your parents?"

"What?" I asked.

"You know," he mumbled uncomfortably, "after Professor Longbottom didn't punish us."

"Oh, no," I answered. "You haven't done anything."

"Then why have you been avoiding me?" he asked desperately. "You're one of my closest friends, Rose."

Again, I squirmed, wracking my brain for some way out of the situation but seeing none.

"If you're not going to be honest with me, Rose, I don't see how we can continue to be friends-"

"-I went to the future and we were engaged," I blurted, perturbed by Scorpius saying he didn't want to be friends with me anymore, before realising what I had said and clapping my hands over my mouth in horror.

* * *

**A/N: So there you guys have it. There's a little bit of a cliffhanger, but not to worry this will be picked up in the next chapter. I hope you guys enjoyed this. I seem to be unable to write Scorpius and Rose in a non-romantic way so I hope you also don't mind that what I wrote in this chapter. **


	17. Chapter 17

**A/N: Hey guys! It's not as long as the last chapter but it should be just as exciting. I hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

I gaped at Scorpius in a panic. I hadn't meant for the words I'd been screaming in my head to be spoken out loud. I'd never meant to tell Scorpius what I'd seen, especially since I still had such trouble believing it myself. It was just preposterous; Scorpius and I were friends. I didn't fancy him and he sure as hell didn't fancy me.

"Is that it?" he asked, his voice touched with humour as he refrained from laughing in my face.

"What do you mean is that it?" I demanded, sudden ire blocking out all rational thought. "Do you not believe me?"

"That's not what I-"

"-Do you think I would _lie _to you?" I continued, not even hearing Scorpius' words. As I vented at him, I watched anger twist his mouth and his eyes begin to glower at me.

"Well, what would you call all your excuses today and yesterday, Rose? Because they sure sounded like lies to me," he retorted, voice rising. "Everything would have been fine if you'd just come to me and been honest. I could have just told you that I don't care and we wouldn't be pointlessly arguing right now!"

"You don't care?"

"Of course I don't care!" he exclaimed, exasperated by my shock and disbelief. "It's the future, Rose! It's not set in stone. The only thing that matters is what's going on now. If we're a couple in the future, we're a couple. If we're not, we're not. Why should what _may _or _may not_ happen in the future affect our friendship here and now?"

"Well, I didn't _mean_ to let it wreck our friendship," I pointed out indignantly. I couldn't help feeling a little peeved by the fact that he apparently wasn't at all bothered by what I'd seen. Any normal person would have reacted just as I had, I reasoned. So there had to be some reason why Scorpius wasn't bothered.

"What's wrong now?"

"I just can't believe you're not bothered by this, that you don't think it's going to happen."

"I didn't say I didn't think it was going to happen," he replied, running his hand through his hair in frustration. "I don't know how to make this clearer to you, Rose. I said it doesn't matter either way. If it doesn't happen, I'll still be best friends with you. If it does happen then that's great because I'm in love with my best friend and I'll be happy!"

I found myself gawping at him again. _He's in love with me? _I felt a flutter in my chest at the thought. And all of a sudden everything made sense. I knew why Marian had been shooting Scorpius and me frequent looks. I knew why I had been troubled by the thought of Scorpius and Lucy as an item. And I knew why I was so affected by what I had seen in the future and in my dream. I just wasn't afraid to admit it anymore.

"Rose?" He seemed to be unaware of what he'd just said.

"Just to check," I began, feeling more awkward than I even thought was possible. "You're _in _love with your best friend or _will be_ in love with your best friend…"

He paused and stared at me, seeming to struggle trying to decide what to say.

"Would it be a problem if I was in love with my best friend?"

His voice had been quiet, but I had heard him perfectly and was unable to stop the corners of my mouth lilting up into a small smile as I shuffled my feet embarrassedly, effectively giving him his answer.

"Scorpius, I-"

"-There you two are!" Albus exclaimed, jogging down the deserted corridor we had been shouting in. "I've been looking for you. Nice of you to ditch me after charms by the way..." he trailed off as he finally he caught on to the tense atmosphere between Scorpius and me. A devious grin lit his face. "What's going on?"

At the suggestive tone in his voice, I flushed deeply and declared, "Nothing!" I knew from Al's smirk that I had answered far too quickly and heatedly for that to be the case, but there was no way I was telling him what had been transpiring between Scorpius and me and what I had been about to say. He raised his eyebrows, obviously silently asking something along the lines of, 'Why don't I believe you?'

Clearing his throat, Scorpius said, "Rose was just confessing something." I shot him a frantic look of livid alarm.

"Oh yes? And what was that?" Al looked positively gleeful.

"That she used the time machine to go to the future."

"Scorpius!"

"What!" Al yelled in outrage. "That's so not fair! Merlin, you're such a hypocrite! What was it you said when we got back, Rose? 'You heard Professor Longbottom. That's the last time we use the time machine.'" I scowled at his impression of me. "I should have known you wanted it all to yourself. Well, you know what this time you won't stop me from using it!" Not giving us any time to react, Albus turned on his heel and stormed back down the corridor.

"I have a really bad feeling about this," I groaned, starting to dash down the corridor after him only to be stopped by Scorpius' fingers locking around my wrist. Looking back at him, I asked, "What are you doing? We need to stop Al!"

"You never finished what you were saying," he said simply, his tone and eyes carefully guarded.

_Boys and their timing! _"Now's really not the time," I replied, trying to speak as gently as I could. Apparently, I wasn't gentle enough.

"Right." His voice was hollow and his usually warm eyes hard and dejected as he thrust his hands in pockets, spinning around before walking after Albus.

"Scorpius…"

He didn't turn around.

I dithered for a moment. What was I supposed to do? Did I go after Albus and stop him from using the stupid machine to go Merlin-knows-where or did I stay and talk to Scorpius? In a sense, I was being forced to choose between my two best friends – an impossible decision. But I knew there was an important distinction between Al and Scorpius. Al was my cousin, my relation, the boy who I would be friends with for my whole life because I'd never be able to get rid of him but Scorpius wasn't. I wouldn't see him every year at family gatherings, not unless I invited him anyway. If I wanted him to stay in my life, I had to take a chance.

"Wait! Scorpius, wait!" I called. When he didn't respond, I sprinted after him, surprised by how far his slow mope had taken him in the short time I had been deliberating. I knew he must have heard me running to him, and couldn't help feeling angry when he refused to turn around. Seizing him by the shoulder, I tugged until he was facing me again only to be stymied by the fact that he wouldn't stop glowering at the ground. "Would you look at me?"

He mumbled something under his breath and continued to stare sullenly anywhere but at my face.

"Is there something interesting about the floor?" I tried to joke. Fed up, I placed my palms on either side of Scorpius' face and forced him to look at me.

"What?"

Ignoring his brooding tone was hard, but I didn't want to make the situation worse. "What do you mean 'what?' I thought you wanted to know what I was going to say."

"Forget it, Rose," he muttered. "It doesn't matter."

"Yes it does because what I was going to say was that it doesn't matter if you're in love with me. Do you know why? Because I'm pretty sure I'm in love with you too, you idiot."

"What?"

"I said I love you," I laughed, my hands still resting on his cheeks.

"Really? I thought-" He broke off and said, "Never mind."

"So…are we…okay now?"

He nodded, taking one of my hands in his, he intertwined our fingers.

I squeezed his hand as I removed the other from his face to tuck a stray piece of hair behind my ear. A moment of silence passed between us before, by unspoken consent, we strolled down the corridor.

"We should probably go after Albus," I murmured.

"Hmm," he agreed, still walking at a leisurely pace to match me. "I'll give you three guesses where he's gone."

"I don't think I need them. Come on."

"Rose, hang on." Using the grip he had on my hand he tugged me to a stop. "Why don't we just let him go this once?"

"What?"

"Well, he's actually a lot more sensible than you think. He'll be fine and once he's gone and got whatever it is he wants to use the machine for out of his system, he won't want to use it again…" He looked at me uncertainly, waiting for, and likely fearing, my reaction.

"That makes sense," I said slowly.

He breathed a sigh of relief. "To dinner then?"

"Sure, Scorpius."

* * *

**A/N: So, there you have it. I have a quick question. I know where Albus has gone and I REALLY want to include it in the story. Because of this I just wanted to let you know that there's a possibility the next chapter may switch to his POV. Alternatively, it'll stay in Rose's POV as she listens to Albus telling her what happened. Anyways, thanks for reading. Let me know what you thought!**


	18. Chapter 18

**A/N: So here we are again. I just decided to write these next two chapters related to Albus' adventure in Rose's POV because I'm so used to writing in her voice. I hope you enjoy it!**

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While Scorpius and I ate dinner, sitting side by side, nobody asked us where Al was. I'd like to say it was because nobody noticed his absence, but that would have just been ridiculous: Al was so loud and obnoxious it was almost silent without him. No, I knew the reason no-one asked us where Albus was was because every few seconds Scorpius would glance at me, meeting my eyes and I would flush scarlet and duck my head only to find my gaze drawn back to him mere moments later. After catching sight of Lily and Hugo quite literally gaping at us, their mouths hanging open, it became obvious that our shared looks weren't quite as discreet as we had first thought.

"What?" I demanded, causing Hugo and Lily to look away. Relaxing again, I ignored Scorpius' grin until he nodded down the table at Fred and James who were also watching us closely.

"Didn't I tell you?" James asked.

"You? No, I told you," Fred replied.

"You must be joking. I definitely remember that I told you."

"James, you shouldn't mess about with memory spells, mate-"

"-I distinctly remember that when we brought you back from you-know-where, I pointed them out and said-"

Fred drowned James out, beginning to talk over the top of him. With their two voices overlapping, it was almost impossible to tell what they were arguing about. Almost. Even if we had been able to hear what they were saying, we would have known they were talking about us, since even while they were arguing; neither Fred nor James tore their gaze off of Scorpius and me to glare or glower at one another.

"I don't know about you, but I'm finding all this attention…"

"Annoying?" Scorpius guessed.

"I was going to say ridiculous, but that too."

Gathering his things, Scorpius stood up and offered me his hand. "The Common Room?" I grimaced at the thought that the Common Room would probably only provide my family with more chance to stare, and knew that that wouldn't be all they did. Dominique would drag me away with Roxanne, Lucy and probably Molly too and endlessly quiz me about Scorpius, and I definitely wasn't ready for that. Noticing the twist of my lips, Scorpius made another suggestion. "The library then?"

In answer I took his hand, feeling shivers run up my arms, and stood up.

As we left, Fred cat-called, "Don't do anything I wouldn't do, Scorpius!" Meeting Scorpius' eyes, the both of us blushed and instantly dropped hands, only causing Fred, James and half of the Gryffindor table to laugh harder.

"So…" Scorpius said as we were walking up the stairs, finally breaking the awkward silence that had settled over us ever since Fred had jeered at us. I glanced at him, expecting him to continue talking, but he was looking skyward, his face screwed up in thought. It wasn't hard to work out he was trying to find a conversation topic.

Taking pity on him, I tried to start a conversation myself. "I-"

"-Yes?" Scorpius asked, leaping at the chance for normality to resume. But after interrupting me, I found my mind suspiciously blank, unable to remember what I was going to say and unable to think of something else.

Frustrated, I sighed, "This is just ridiculous."

Scorpius snorted. "You got that right." He looked at me for a moment before saying, "We're being stupid, aren't we, letting them get to us?"

"Then we just have to stop letting them get to us. Carry on as normal, you know."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Changing the topic, he said, "Have you done that piece of parchment for Professor Cackling yet?"

"I've only started it. You?"

"Yeah, I started it but got stuck. It's due on Friday isn't it?"

"Yeah. There's this one book I really want to read, but someone else has already got it out of the library. I guess this is as good a time as any to see if it's back in," I replied, walking through the open archway and into the library. Scorpius followed me to one of the tables of the deserted right wing and began digging around in his bag for a quill and his ink bottle, before reaching back into the canvas shoulder bag for the piece of parchment bearing his homework.

I turned away from the bookshelves I was searching after Scorpius declared, "Aha!" and held a crumpled piece of parchment aloft.

"Careful you don't lose marks for scruffiness…"

"What? That's not a thing!" When I didn't answer and continued to search the shelves for Defensive Magic by Harriet Moriarty, he seemed to doubt the answer. "Right? They can't really dock marks for that."

Not seeing the book anywhere, I stood from my crouch and told him, "I'm going to go and check with Madam Pince whether the book's been returned. Back in a second."

As I was walking away, I could have sworn I heard him scoff to himself and mutter, "Being stupid. There's no such thing as docking marks for scruffiness."

Grinning to myself, I continued walking towards Madam Pince's desk and wondered whether Scorpius was always so gullible.

"I'm sorry, Miss Weasley, I told you yesterday. Defensive Magic by Harriet Moriarty is out on a two week loan. It won't be back until the end of this week," Madam Pince said before I'd even gotten to her desk where she was checking piles of books for defacement.

"Right, sorry, I just came to check because-"

"You need it for the homework set by Professor Cackling? As do all the Fourth Year students, I'm afraid."

I sighed. I needed that book. Sure, I could probably write something reasonably without it and still pass but if I was going to get full marks, I needed that book.

Taking pity on me, Madam Pince said gently, "Have you tried looking in Dallas' Defensive Spells? It's six shelves in in the east wing."

I collected the book Madam Pince had suggested on my way back to Scorpius and took the seat opposite him. Drawing my bag towards me, I collected my own stationary and began taking notes.

I glanced up, feeling Scorpius' eyes on me. The smile I flashed him was fleeting before I returned my gaze to the book in front of me. But less than a minute later, the hairs on the back of my neck rose, my skin tickled as I felt Scorpius staring at me again.

"Can I help you with something?" I murmured, still writing.

"Hmm?" He seemed genuinely confused.

"You're staring." The attention was almost disconcerting. Once he saw I had realised he was watching me, he didn't turn his gaze; just continued.

"Well, I can do this now, you know. I can stare at you without needing an excuse. It's nice," he said simply.

I smiled again, feeling my cheeks turning pink. It was sweet.

"So where do you reckon Albus went then?" I asked after looking up to find Scorpius still staring at me again, his own homework forgotten.

His gaze unflinching, Scorpius shrugged. "Well, you went to see your future, maybe he went to see his."

"Al? The future?"

"Well, why not? He's really not as immature as you think he is, Rose. Just because he messes about, doesn't mean he doesn't think about what he's going to do when we leave Hogwarts."

"So what's he decided? Quidditch?"

Scorpius shook his head, a strange smile tilting his lips as he looked down at one of the cracks in the table.

"Auror's office with Uncle Harry then?"

"Nope," Scorpius replied.

"Please don't tell me he wants to go into business with Uncle George."

"No, and would you stop guessing?"

"Why?" I asked, setting my quill down for a moment and fixing all of my attention on him. He shuffled uncomfortably under my stare but refused to talk. In disbelief, I frowned.

"He's…embarrassed," he admitted, caving at the look in my eyes. He was quick to add, "But that's all I'm going to say! And you can't tell him I said anything!"

"Fine, guess I'll just have to ask him myself."

"Rose! You can't – then he'll know that I said something! And I shouldn't have said anything. It's like the first rule of the code."

"Honestly, what is it with you guys and your 'code'?" I asked, holding my fingers up as I quoted him. "Time was Albus would tell me all that kind of stuff. Now he doesn't tell me anything. He's always with you instead."

Scorpius frowned for a moment, seeming to try to find something to say.

"Look, it's fine. You don't have to say anything, I get it. You're Al's best friend now, not me."

"Rose-" he started, his voice low and tender.

"-I'm fine."

"I was just going to say that while Albus is my best friend, you're my… You're something more."

"It's okay, Scorpius, you can say girlfriend."

"Right, just we hadn't discussed it or anything and you know… Not that I don't want that, but if you don't that's fine as well…" I lost track of what he was saying as he rambled, almost nervously, and I stood up and walked around the table until I was squeezing my way in front of him, sitting on the edge of the study table. I was lucky the library was still deserted, not that I'd checked to see before I leaned in.

"Scorpius…" I breathed into his ear, cutting off whatever he was still trying to say.

"Yeah?"

"Stop talking." Before he could say anything else, I kissed him.

* * *

**A/N: So yeah, didn't find out anything about Al in this chapter I'm afraid. What can I say? I didn't plot this chapter at all and basically didn't intend to write any of this. It just came out. Regardless, I hope you liked it. Let me know what you think! I promise that Albus will reappear in the next chapter and that you'll find out where he went. I'm planning for that one to be a bit longer too. Also, hope you like the cover I created. (I was bored one day.)**


	19. Chapter 19

**A/N: Thanks to those of you who have added this story to your alerts and especially Pika-Thunder and NerdyOwlLover for reviewing!**

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The next morning, I descended the dormitory stairs to find Scorpius waiting for me in the Common Room.

"Finally," he muttered, pushing off from the wall he was leaning against and walking to meet me.

"What do you mean 'finally'?"

"I've been waiting for you for fifteen minutes. If we don't hurry up, we'll miss breakfast."

"Well, I had to wait for Niamh to get out of the shower," I replied, scrambling for an excuse that wouldn't reveal how long I had stood in front of the mirror deliberating over whether to straighten my hair and wear one of Dom's eye liners. "Let's go."

We weren't the only students hurrying down to the Great Hall for breakfast, but we were probably the only ones who were going to have to climb right back up to the Astronomy Tower for our theory Astronomy class afterwards. As we entered the Great Hall, hands interlocked, I didn't miss the whispers that followed us to our seats, but, as Scorpius and I had decided the previous evening, we couldn't let them get to us. Still, it was difficult to ignore.

I only had time to eat a piece of toast and take a few sips of pumpkin juice before Dom stood up and shouldered her bag.

"You guys coming?"

"Yep," I said, dropping the crusts of my toast onto the plate. Scorpius stood and held my bag out for me, an act which Dom rolled her eyes at.

"So chivalrous, Scorpius." Her voice was totally deadpan as she spun around and began walking down the gap between the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw tables. On the other side of the table, skirting the wall, Scorpius and I hurried after her, meeting at the end and heading out the door into the Entrance Hall before taking the Grand Staircase two steps at a time. "Where'd you two end up last night then?" Dom asked conversationally.

I shot Scorpius a look, silently warning him to be on his guard.

"The library," he said, the two words showing his wariness.

"That's hardly romantic," she scoffed.

"Well, homework doesn't exactly provide romantic opportunities," I pointed out, hoping that I wasn't blushing at the memory of just how romantic our time in the library had ended up actually being.

"I wouldn't say it was _un_-romantic," Scorpius whispered to me.

"You appear to have forgotten that you can't whisper, Scorpius," Dom said jubilantly, her gaze flitting between Scorpius and me as I bit my lip. "So…who's going to tell me what was so romantic about last night?"

Scorpius' mouth was agape.

"My lips are sealed, and as are his," I told her determinedly, pushing Scorpius' jaws shut to make my point before pushing past her and walking into the Astronomy reading room where we always had theory lessons. With winter in full swing, and the weekly forecast predicting a storm, our Thursday evening class had been cancelled and instead, as dictated by the note placed on the notice board in Gryffindor Common Room the previous evening, we were going to spend the first period of the day reading.

"Oh, hey Rose, I saved you a seat," Albus called from the front of the classroom.

I stood stock-still in shock, wondering when Al had reappeared. He hadn't been in the Common Room the night before; though Scorpius and I were late getting back, but he hadn't gone down to breakfast either.

"Well don't just stand there, Rose, you're blocking the doorway. Come on, sit down."

"O-kay," I replied slowly, locking eyes with Scorpius behind me and wondering why Albus wasn't still in a bad mood with me. He just shrugged in response and sat down, sharing a table with Dominique instead.

"I've been waiting for you to get here for ages, Rose."

"But Professor Marinus isn't even here yet… You're never this early…"

"I wanted to get a good seat," he said simply, slapping the table top in front of him as evidence.

"Okay, who are you and what have you done with my cousin?" I demanded, pointing my wand at him.

I was expecting the imposter's hands to fly into the air in a plea for mercy, but instead he just laughed in my face.

"Oh, Rosie." He was laughing so much that those were the only words he could get out as he held his hands over his stomach and his eyes watered. "Rosie, don't be ridiculous," he finally managed to say.

"It's not ridiculous-"

"Good morning, Class," Professor Marinus called as he breezed into the classroom and set his briefcase on his desk before taking out a pile of textbooks.

"Morning Professor Marinus," Al exclaimed brightly, a whole full second before the rest of the class intoned the same words in a bored tone. I shot Al a look, noting how he was sat with his back ram-rod straight, rather than in his usual slouch, and how his robes seemed cleaner, his shirt tucked in for what had to be the first time in two years. Even his hair looked like it had been tamed into passible submission.

"Today I would like you to work in pairs, each taking a constellation of your choice, and create a project on it. I have brought in a number of books, each focusing on different constellations- Yes, Mr Potter?"

I looked sideways to find Albus with his hand in the air.

"What about constellations that no longer exist?"

"As I said, Mr Potter, a constellation of your choice," Professor Marinus answered with an incline of his head.

"So, Sagittarius?" I asked, suggesting a constellation.

"Or Argo Navis?"

"Al, the largest constellation? Do you know how much work that's going to be for me?"

"For you? Who said you were going to be doing it alone?" he questioned, getting up and collecting two promising textbooks from Professor Marinus' desk. "Here."

I accepted the textbook from him and began flicking through for a section on Argo Navis, whilst Albus looked through the second book.

"So where'd you go?"

"Hmm?" He didn't look up from the textbook.

"You know…last night, where'd you go?" I tried my best to keep my voice to an undertone.

"Nowhere. I was just in the library all night, doing Professor Harris' essay."

Outraged, I couldn't keep the bite out of my voice. "If you don't want to tell me, fine; but don't lie to me, Albus."

"I'm not lying," he defended, looking shocked by the steely tone I'd taken with him.

"Then take my advice: next time you invent a story to cover your tracks, you might want to think first because I was in the library yesterday evening and Scorpius and I were the _only. Ones. There._" Without another word, I turned back to my textbook and Al and I spent the rest of the lesson in silence.

"Please consider finishing these projects this week's homework in addition to studying the night skies as usual."

I packed away my things and returned Professor Marinus' textbook to his desk before meeting Scorpius at the door.

"I'm sitting next to you in Potions," Scorpius declared, taking the words right out of my mouth.

"Why? What happened with Dom?"

"Oh, nothing, she just spent the entire lesson quizzing me about last night and when I didn't give her any answers, well not the kind that she wanted to hear anyway, she began making up her own version of events."

I grimaced in sympathy, just imagining all the scenarios Dominique's dirty mind would concoct.

"So, did you find out where Al went?" Scor asked as the two of us walked down to the Dungeons, Albus and Dominique somewhere in the crowd of students behind us.

"No," I scowled, "and do you know what? He even had the nerve to lie to me! He said he never went anywhere and he was in the library all evening!"

"I'll ask him. He'll tell me," Scorpius assured me, holding an arm in front of my waist to stop me from walking onto the staircase in front of us as it moved. A queue began to form behind us as we waited for a set of stairs to swing into place in front of us.

"Yo, what's the hold up?" a Slytherin sixth year at the back of the queue shouted, barging through the students to get to the front, causing even more of a ruckus.

"Hey!" a brave Ravenclaw girl complained.

"It's just the staircases moving," someone else not far behind us told the Slytherin.

"Yeah, relax."

"Don't tell me what to do, Scamander!" the surly Slytherin boy said.

"Don't shove me!" one of the Scamander twins growled back at him.

"I'll shove you if I want to."

I risked a glance backwards to see Lorcan Scamander, despite their disparate stature, push Bane Montenegro so hard he almost fell over the bannister.

"Time to go," Scorpius said, tugging me by the elbow onto the staircase swinging into place.

Whilst we escaped the stairway brawl, it was obvious by their late appearance in Potions that Albus and Dominique hadn't. As they joined our table, Dom taking the seat opposite me I was careful to keep busy with finely chopping newt's tails and avoid making eye contact. I wasn't going to give her any opportunity to start up a conversation that revolved around Scorpius and me.

Unusually, Scorpius was having as much luck talking to Al as Dom was me.

"Al? Mate? Hello?"

"What?" Albus asked, finally looking up from where he was stirring his Singing Solution.

"I said I needed some more quills and asked whether your Uncle had any new ones yet? The spell-checking ones are a god-send."

Albus shrugged. "Ask him yourself. You know he'll be in the shop for our Hogsmeade weekend."

Picking up on Al's irritable mood, Scorpius asked, "Have I done something to offend you..?"

"I'm trying to concentrate. And you keep making me lose count of how many clockwise turns I've made. Potions is an important subject for me."

"Why? Because you want to impress Professor Jamieson?" Dom laughed, giving up on drawing answers out of me much to my relief. Al ignored her and that was the last thing he said for the entire double period. "Fine, be stupid, Al. Ignore us all you want. Rose, Scorpius and I will be right here, having a great time." But Al's silence only soured the mood.

"Scorpius, how many beetle eyes did you use?" Professor Jamieson asked, peering over his shoulder to eye the pale, lilac liquid in his cauldron as she lifted the ladle and poured out the thin substance. "You only put four in, didn't you? That's why it's too thin."

"I'm not sure, Professor…"

"I'm afraid better concentration is required, Mr Malfoy. Mr Potter, let's see what malodourous brew you've concocted this time."

"Yes, Professor," said Al, letting go of his ladle and wiping his sweating brow with the back of his hand.

Professor Jamieson seemed surprised as she gave Albus what was probably his first Exceeds Expectations in Potions a few moments later. "Nice work, Mr Potter. Keep it up." After finishing noting down Albus' mark on her score sheet, Professor Jamieson moved on to the last table in the room.

"I could have sworn the board said to put four beetle's eyes in…" Scorpius mumbled.

"No, it definitely said five," I told him quietly.

"Really?"

"Maybe you need glasses."

"There is no way I am getting glasses," Scorpius said vehemently. "No way."

"There's nothing wrong with glasses. Uncle Harry wears them," I pointed out, shouldering my bag. He quietened my arguments with a single look. "Well, there's always contact lenses. Or do you have some ridiculous vendetta against those too?"

"Ha ha, Rose." I smirked at his sarcastic tone. "I don't have a vendetta against glasses; I'd just rather not wear them. Anyway, there's nothing wrong with my eyesight."

"Maybe not," I conceded.

As we slipped past the tall doors blocking the bitter, winter winds from entering the castle and began crossing the viaduct, Scorpius wondered aloud, "I wonder what's for lunch."

"Why is it that all boys think about is food?" Dom asked from behind us.

Laughing, I glanced back at her and linked my arm through hers, pulling her into a line beside Scorpius and me.

"That's why we girls have to stick together."

"Where's Al?"

At Scorpius' question, I looked back again but Albus was nowhere in sight.

"I thought he was with you," I said, looking at Dom.

"No, he left the classroom before all three of us."

"He must just be really hungry," Scorpius reassured us after Dom and I shared a worried look. "I bet he's saving a seat for us." Despite his words, none of us – including Scorpius – had obviously believed him, since the moment we arrived at the Great Hall and found Albus already seated at the Gryffindor table, we paused.

"Wow, maybe you should take divination for an OWL, Scorpius," Dom muttered. "Add psychic to your list of qualifications."

"Maybe," Scorpius allowed with a tilt of his head before striding forwards and sitting next to Albus. If he noticed that someone had sat next to him, Al gave no indication of it. Even the plate of food sat in front of him was apparently unworthy of his attention. Instead, his nose was buried in a book and everything else forgotten.

"Weird," Dom said.

"Definitely."

"Dom!" Louis yelled, momentarily drawing my attention away from Albus as he beckoned over his older sister.

"See you later?"

"Yeah. I'll save you a place in Herb ology," I promised her.

"Cheers. And let me know what you get from Al."

I nodded and walked in the opposite direction, squeezing down into the space beside my boyfriend.

"You want some of my cherry syrup?" Scorpius offered the second I dropped my bag on the floor.

"Sure." Taking the goblet from him, I poured some into the empty bronze cup in front of my plate. "Is there any pumpkin juice?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"I'm going to mix it with the cherry syrup," I replied exasperatedly. "Why else would I want it if I wasn't going to drink it?"

"That's gross."

"How do you know? Have you ever tried it?"

"I don't need to try it to know that it tastes disgusting," he professed.

"Well, soon enough you'll be eating your words," I vowed, setting down the decanter of pumpkin juice and turning to him expectantly.

"You really expect me to drink that?" I nodded and held my goblet out further until the rim was pushed against his lips. "Here goes nothing then," he mumbled before parting his lips and allowing me to tip some of the red drink into his mouth.

"That's actually not that bad," Scorpius said after a moment.

"Told you."

"I think I'll stick to cherry syrup on its own though."

"Suit yourself," I grinned, taking a sip of the drink myself.

"What's everyone looking at?" Albus asked suddenly. I glanced around, finding numerous pairs of eyes meeting my own. "Am I missing something?"

"Yeah, these two idiots stopped dancing around each other," James said as he passed, having finished eating.

"Oh. Well, I'd love to talk but I've really got to get going. Don't want to be late for Transfiguration."

Watching his retreating figure, Scorpius asked, "What has gotten into him?"

"I don't know. But something obviously happened. It's like having the old Albus back. Even I never went to lessons this early though." Scorpius lifted his eyebrows. "What? I didn't." At the waver of his mouth, I relented, "Okay, well maybe I did once or twice. But only when I needed to speak to a teacher before the lesson."

"You want a spring roll?"

"No thanks, I've got duck pancakes. You want one of those?"

"Don't mind if I do," Scorpius said, pinching one from my plate.

"Well, isn't this couple-y?" Dom teased, sitting down opposite us.

Ignoring the taunt, I asked, "What did Louis want?"

"Just passing on a letter from Mum and Dad. More to the point, what did you find out from Albus?"

"Nothing," Scorpius shrugged.

"Nothing?"

"Believe it, Dom. He didn't even react to finding out about us. Just said 'Oh' and left for Transfiguration."

"What?! It's not even half twelve!"

"I know," I agreed.

"You sure the two of you haven't switched bodies or something? He's going to lessons early and you're sat here buddied up with Scorpius."

I glared at her for a few seconds before, looking at Scorpius for confirmation as I said, "I think we all know what happened."

"I sure don't."

"He used the machine," I hissed.

"The little-" Dom cut herself off before she bad-mouthed our cousin, growling a little instead. "You know what? I'm fed up of all this cloak-and-dagger."

"Where are you going?" I called, hurrying to stand up and almost falling after standing on the tail of my cloak as Dom purposefully marched away from the table.

"To Transfiguration. To get some answers. Where did you think?"

Scorpius and I shrugged, catching up with her.

When we arrived at the transfiguration classroom, Albus was sat outside with a textbook open in his lap.

"Albus, where did you go when you used the time machine last night?"

"You too, Dom?" Instead of answering him, Dominique just stood with her hands on her hips, staring him down. "I told Rose. I didn't go anywhere. I was in the-"

"-Don't you dare say Library!"

"Fine, I wasn't in the library, Rose. I was in the Hufflepuff Common Room with Poppy."

"Poppy Blair? Doesn't she hate you?" Scorpius asked after Albus nodded.

"She doesn't hate me. She fancies me."

"Stop lying, Albus."

"I'm not ly-"

"-I'm your best friend," Scorpius yelled, throwing his hands up. "I know when you're lying. So just stop. Stop making up all these stories and just tell us where you really were and what happened."

"Fine! I used the stupid time machine! But nothing happened!"

"Okay, now you're just being ridiculous," Dom scoffed angrily. "Nothing happened? Why are you acting like a nerd all of a sudden then?"

"Dom!"

Nobody heard my stern reprimand because Albus was suddenly speaking over the top of me. "Acting like a nerd? First I get told off for not paying attention to my studies, and now I get scolded for being hard-working and focusing? I just can't win! You want to know? Fine. Someone advised me that if I want to be a St Mungos healer, I need to actually use my intelligence and get the grades I'm capable of."

"Who?" I demanded, wondering who able to convince Albus where I wasn't.

"Albus Dumbledore," he mumbled.

* * *

**A/N: So, there you have it. Right from when I first started entertaining ideas for this story, I've had the idea for Al meeting Dumbledore and this is how I decided to work it into the story. I hope you enjoyed it. Let me know what you think!**


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